Prognostic significance of epidermal growth factor receptor expression in glioma patients.

Purpose: There is a great controversy regarding the prognostic significance of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in glioma patients. The current meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of abnormal EGFR expression on overall survival in glioma patients. Materials and methods: A comprehensive literature search of PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library was conducted. The combined hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the association between EGFR expression and survival in glioma. Results: A total of 476 articles were screened, and 17 articles containing 1,458 patients were selected. The quality assessment of the included studies was performed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Overexpression of EGFR was found to be an indicator of poor prognosis in overall survival in glioma patients (HR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.32-2.25, P=0.000, random effect) and glioblastoma multiforme patients (HR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.15-2.14, P=0.004, random effect). Subgroup analysis was conducted to explore the source of high heterogeneity. Conclusion: This meta-analysis indicated that high expression of EGFR may serve as a biomarker for poor prognosis in glioma patients.