Clinical Implications and Prognostic Value of Leucine-Rich G Protein-Coupled Receptor 5 Expression as A Cancer Stem Cell Marker in Malignancies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Document Type : Systematic Review

Authors

1 Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

2 Pediatric Inherited Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

3 Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Leucine-rich G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) is a marker of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in various cancers.
Based on different studies, conflicting reports exist on correlation between LGR5 expression and poor prognosis/
clinicopathological parameters in cancer patients. Therefore, our purpose in conducting this study was to investigate
correlation between LGR5 expression and outcomes of cancer patients under study through a systematic review and
meta-analysis. Relevant articles were searched and collected using EMBASE, PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus
databases until December 21, 2022. This study was conducted to examine correlation between LGR5 expression and
different clinical outcomes, such as recurrence-free survival (RFS), disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS),
and clinicopathological characteristics of the included cancer patients. To achieve this, hazard ratios (HRs) with 95%
confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs were used as statistical measures. A meta-analysis was
conducted using STATA 12.0 software. Finally, 53 studies including 9523 patients met the inclusion criteria. Significantly,
high-level expression of LGR5 was related to poor prognosis in terms of OS, higher tumor stage, presence of distant
metastasis, and presence of lymph node metastasis. It was discovered through subgroup analysis that several factors,
including the study area, evaluation method, and type of cancer, can influence the correlation between LGR5 expression
and negative prognosis in cancer patients. According to the results of our study, LGR5 overexpression was related to
poor OS in cancer patients. In addition, clinicopathological data indicated an unfavorable prognosis in cancer patients
with high LGR5 expression. In conclusion, LGR5 may serve as a potential prognostic marker for predicting survival in
certain cancer types.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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