Background

To observe the clinicopathological and prognostic value of long non-coding RNA five prime to X inactive specific transcript (lncFTX) in multiple tumors.

Methods

Eligible studies for lncFTX were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 01, 2020. Stata 12.0 software was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR)/hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). We used The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset to further investigate the differential expression and prognostic value of lncFTX.

Results

We included 11 studies involving a total of 1633 patients. The results showed that the expression of lncFTX was positively associated with advanced TNM stage (III-IV versus I-II) (OR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.74–3.03, P < 0.05), lymph nodes metastasis (OR = 3.01, 95% CI: 2.00–4.52, P < 0.05), distant metastasis (OR = 3.68, 95% CI: 2.13–6.34, P < 0.05), and cancer mortality (HR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.20–2.81, P < 0.05). However, the expression of lncFTX was not associated with tumor differentiation (poor differentiation versus well or moderate differentiation) and vessel invasion of cancer. Subgroup analysis showed that the higher lncFTX expression was associated with shorter overall survival in cancer patients, regardless of the sample size and cancer type. No publication bias was found, and the sensitivity analysis results suggested that the main findings were robust. Elevated expression and prognostic significance of FTX were confirmed using TCGA dataset.

Conclusions

This study found that the expression of lncFTX was positively associated with advanced tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, lymph nodes, distant metastasis and, cancer mortality, suggesting that lncFTX might be a potential prognostic biomarker for tumors.