Correlation between non-metastatic protein 23 expression and clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer in Asians.

The current meta-analysis was performed to investigate the association between non-metastatic protein 23 (NM23) expression, tumor pathology, and disease prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) among Asians. English and Chinese language-based electronic databases (e.g., PubMed, EBSCO, Ovid, Springerlink, Wiley, Web of Science, Wanfang databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP databases) were searched using search terms to identify published studies relevant to NM23 and CRC with immunohistochemistry. In total, 289 studies were identified through database searches, and 16 cohort studies (4 studies in English, 12 in Chinese) were chosen for meta-analysis, which included 1592 CRC patients. The results revealed that NM23 protein expression in CRC tissue was higher in patients with Dukes stages A and B than in patients with Dukes stages C and D. The NM23 protein was expressed at higher levels in well- and moderately differentiated tumors than in poorly differentiated tumors. The 5-year survival rate was also higher in CRC patients with NM23-positive tumors than in CRC patients with NM23-negative tumors. Significantly, 5-year tumor relapse and metastasis were lower in patients with NM23-positive tumors than in CRC patients with NM23-negative tumors. The findings suggest that NM23 expression status is associated with tumor aggressiveness and survival in CRC among Asians. Importantly, CRC patients with NM23-positive tumors had a better prognosis, and thus NM23 expression maybe used as a key prognostic indicator for CRC.