Prognostic value of caveolin-1 in genitourinary cancer: a meta-analysis.

We aimed to obtain the most comprehensive picture to date of the prognostic value of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) in genitourinary carcinoma by meta-analyzing all eligible studies in PubMed and EMBASE. Data on patient clinical characteristics, cancer-specific survival (CSS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were extracted. The meta-analysis included 6 articles on prostate cancer, 5 on renal cancer, 1 on bladder cancer and 1 on transition cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract. Two studies examining the association of ELISA-measured Cav-1 levels in serum with RFS in 621 patients with prostate cancer gave a combined hazard ratio (HR) of 1.25 (95% CI 0.36 to 4.36). The other 4 studies on prostate cancer examined the association of immunohistochemically determined Cav-1 levels in cancerous tissue with RFS and gave a combined HR of 1.83 (95% CI 1.36 to 2.47). Three studies on renal cancer examining the association of Cav-1 levels with CSS gave a multivariate HR of 1.98 (95% CI 1.35 to 2.90). The single studies on bladder carcinoma and upper urinary tract carcinoma gave, respectively, a multivariate HR of 2.28 (95% CI 1.09 to 4.74) for the relationship of Cav-1 levels to DFS, and a multivariate HR of 5.08 (95% CI 1.799 to 14.342) for the relationship of Cav-1 levels to CSS. This meta-analysis of available evidence suggests that elevated Cav-1 levels in serum can predict poor survival in patients with genitourinary cancer, which may help identify high-risk patients earlier and guide clinical decision-making.