Introduction: A long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been reported to be aberrantly regulated in a wide range of cancers. This meta-analysis was performed to explore the potential value of H19 as a biomarker for cancer prognosis.
Evidence acquistion: We searched the electronic databases PubMed and Web of Science (up to April 30, 2016) in attention to collect all relevant researches to identify the association of lncRNA H19 with overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and lymph node metastasis (LNM).
Evidence synthesis: Our findings revealed that high levels of H19 expression could predict poor OS (pooled HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.08-1.32, P=0.001) and LNM (pooled OR: 1.810, 95% CI: 1.27-2.59, P=0.001) in multiple cancers.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis showed that overexpression of H19 might potentially serve as a reliable biomarker for poor prognosis in different types of cancers.