Introduction: Various studies examined the relationship between the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) with the clinical outcome in patients with lung cancer, but yielded conflicting results.
Evidence acquisition: Electronic databases updated to January 2016 were searched to find relevant studies. A meta-analysis was conducted with eligible studies which quantitatively evaluated the relationship between the expression of PTEN and clinical outcomes of patients with lung cancer. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis were conducted.
Evidence synthesis: A total of 13 studies were included. When compared with high PTEN expression group, the lung cancer patients with reduced PTEN expression exhibited shorter overall survival (hazard ratio=0.40, 95%CI=0.32~0.52, P<0.001) and shorter progression-free survival (hazard ratio=0.53, 95%CI=0.38~0.74, P<0.001). In subgroup analysis, among lung cancer patients whose treatments including EGFR TKIs, we observed significant benefits of OS in high PTEN expression group.
Conclusions: Reduced PTEN expression may be an indicator for poor prognosis in patients with lung cancer. It could have the same influence for patients whose treatments include EGFR-TKIs. The presence of PTEN expression may define a subset of patients with lung cancer appropriate for investigational therapeutic strategies.