Aberrant promoter methylation of the vimentin gene may contribute to colorectal carcinogenesis: a meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis of published cohort studies was conducted to evaluate how closely the promoter methylation of the vimentin gene is correlated with the pathogenesis of colorectal carcinogenesis (CRC). The Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), Cochrane Library Database (issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966 ~ 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013) were searched without language restrictions. Meta-analyses were conducted using Stata software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 %CI) were calculated. Seven clinical cohort studies with a total of 467 CRC subjects met our inclusion criteria. Our meta-analysis results demonstrated that the frequency of vimentin promoter methylation in cancer tissues was significantly higher than in normal and benign tissues (cancer tissues vs. normal tissues: OR = 32.41, 95 %CI = 21.04 ~ 49.93, P < 0.001; cancer tissues vs. benign tissues: OR = 1.60, 95 %CI 1.05 ~ 2.42, P = 0.028). Ethnicity-stratified analysis indicated that the frequency of aberrant vimentin promoter methylation was correlated with the pathogenesis of CRC in both Asians and Caucasians. The findings of our meta-analysis confirm that vimentin methylation may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of CRC.