Introduction: Numerous studies showed that the Flot-2 protein expression was significantly elevated in cancerous tissues and Flot-2 played pivotal roles in the development and progression of cancers. Increased expression of Flot-2 was correlated to a poor prognosis in cancer patients.
Evidence acquisition: Eligible literatures were collected by retrieving multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI and Wanfang database. With RevMan5.3 software and Stata SE12.0, the association of Flot-2 expression level with lymph node metastasis (LNM) and overall survival (OS) were explored in cancer patients.
Evidence synthesis: A total of 1947 cancer patients from 13 eligible articles were included in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that patients with over-expressed Flot-2 would develop an increased risk of LNM (OR=2.58, 95% CI: 1.60-4.16, P=0.0001), as well as shorter OS (HR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.13-2.06, P=0.000), compared to those patients with lower expression of Flot-2 in tumor tissues.
Conclusions: Flot-2 protein might be a novel biomarker; LNM and OS may be predicted by up-regulated expression of Flot-2 in various tumors.