Prognostic And Clinicopathological Significance Of Muc Expression In Head And Neck Cancer: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis

The prognostic value of mucins expression in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) remains controversial. To address this, a meta-analysis was performed to systematically evaluate prognostic significance of mucins expression in HNC. Electronic and manual searches were performed and a total of 20 studies including 2046 patients were selected for the final analysis. Increased mucins expression was associated with unfavorable overall survival in HNC patients (HR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.43-2.33, p = 0.000). Mucins overexpression was also in correlation with more advanced TNM stage (RR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.73-0.97, p = 0.017), higher risk of lymph node metastasis (RR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.57-0.84, p = 0.000) and deeper invasion (RR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.44-0.76, p = 0.000). These results suggested that elevated mucins expression was significantly associated with worse prognosis and more detrimental clinicopathological outcomes, revealing the promising potential of mucins as biomarkers for HNC management.