Prognostic Role of the Activated p-AKT Molecule in Various Hematologic Malignancies and Solid Tumors: A Meta-Analysis

• Main Authors: Zhen Yao, Guangyu Gao, Jiawen Yang, Yuming Long, Zhenzhen Wang, Wentao Hu, Yulong Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-12-01
• Series: Frontiers in Oncology
• Subjects: p-AKT; tumor; meta-analysis; oxidative stress; biomarker
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.588200/full

Cancer is one of the main causes of human death worldwide. Recently, many studies have firmly established the causal relationship between oxidative stress and cancer initiation and progression. As a key protein in PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, p-AKT (phosphorylated Akt) participates in the process of oxidative stress and plays a prognostic role in various hematologic tumors and solid tumors. We conducted a comprehensive search of the PubMed, Embase and Cochrane libraries to identify studies published in the past decade involving cancer patients expressing p-AKT that reported overall survival (OS) during follow-up. In this study, 6,128 patients in total were evaluated from 29 enrolled articles, and we concluded that overexpression of p-AKT was closely related to worse OS in cancer patients with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.33 (95% CI: 1.67–4.00). Furthermore, we conducted a subgroup analysis, and the results indicated that overexpression of p-AKT was associated with worse OS in hematological tumor (HR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.41–1.92), and solid tumor (HR: 2.44, 95% CI: 1.61–5.26). High expression of p-AKT is related to poor prognosis of various hematologic tumors and solid tumors.