Effect of c-erbB2 overexpression on prognosis in osteosarcoma: evidence from eight studies

C-erbB2 (HER-2/neu) plays an important role in the progression of several types of cancer by increasing tumor growth, migration, invasion, and metastasis and is associated with poor disease prognosis. Numerous studies examining the relationship between c-erbB2 expression and prognostic impact in patients with osteosarcoma have yielded inconclusive results. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the prognostic role of c-erbB2 expression on 5-year survival, which compared the positive and negative expression of c-erbB2 in patients of the available studies. A detailed search was made in PubMed for relevant original articles published in English. Finally, a total of eight studies with 411 osteosarcoma patients were involved to estimate the relationship between c-erbB2 expression and 5-year overall survival. Positive expressions of c-erbB2 predicted poorer survival in osteosarcoma with the pooled RR of 1.53 (95 % CI 1.20–1.94, P = 0.0006). In conclusion, the findings from this present meta-analysis suggest that c-erbB2 overexpression is related to poor prognostic of osteosarcoma and can be a useful clinical prognostic factor for those patients.