Chao Chen, Haiqing Hua, Feng Wang, Yuan Cheng, Yin Cheng, Xueying Ren

Department of Medical Oncology of PLA Cancer Center, 81 Hospital of PLA

Abstract

Objective:The prognostic significance of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter status for survival of patients with malignant gliomas remains controversial. Thus, the meta-analysiswas performed in order to identify the impact of MGMT expression on prognosisof malignant gliomas. 

Method: An extensive literature search forrelevant studies was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CochraneLibrary, and CBM databases. Version 12.0 STATA software was used for thecurrent meta-analysis. Hazard ratios (HRs) with their corresponding 95%confidence interval (95% CI) were also calculated to clarify the correlationbetween MGMT expression and the prognosis of malignant gliomas. 

Result: Finalanalysis of 2,377 malignant gliomas patients from 32 clinical studies wasperformed. The meta-analysis results show that MGMT promoter group andunmethylated MGMT group has a significant difference (all P<0.01). Combined HR of MGMT suggests that the methylated MGMTgroup has a longer overall survival than the unmethylated MGMT group (P<0.01), but the Asians don't presenta difference between the two groups. 

Conclusion: The meta-analysis studyshows that the elevated MGMT promoter group may have a better prognosis in malignantgliomas patients, but the Asians don't have a better prognosis.

Key Words: Malignant, Gliomas,Temozolomide, MGMT