Effect of PIMREG Expression on Prognosis in Glioma Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: The phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein interacting mitotic regulator (PIMREG) is highly expressed in osteosarcoma, cholangiocarcinoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other cancer types, with its high expression being associated with poor cancer survival. At the same time, some studies have explored the association between PIMREG expression and glioma, but the results are controversial. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the effect of PIMREG expression on the prognosis of glioma patients. Methods: The relevant literature published in English was accessed through various databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library from September 2023. The research articles were screened based on the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the literature was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Furthermore, hazard ratio (HR) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for overall survival (OS) were either directly obtained from the original sources or derived from the Kaplan-Meier survival graphs using Engauge Digitizer 4.3. STATA 15.0 was selected for meta-analysis. Moreover, sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the stability of the included studies. Additionally, the Begg rank correlation method and Egger regression method were employed to evaluate the publication bias of the included literature. Results: Following a thorough screening process, 6 research articles were included in this study. Meta-analysis results showed that patients with high PIMREG expression had poorer OS (HR = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.83–3.71). The subgroup analysis revealed that the HR of OS was 2.32 (95% CI: 1.59–3.06) in the Asian population and 3.12 (95% CI: 0.80–5.44) in the non-Asian population. In subgroups of tumor types, the HR for OS was 2.71 (95% CI: 1.88–3.54) for patients with glioma type and 2.60 (95% CI: 0.87–4.34) for those with glioblastoma type. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis revealed that the stability of the included studies was good. Begg and Egger tests showed that in the meta-analysis, publication bias of the included literature was not significant (p = 0.630). Conclusion: The high expression of PIMREG is associated with poor prognosis of glioma patients, indicating its application as a potential prognostic indicator for these patients.