Abstract
Several studies were conducted to explore the prognostic significance of Twist in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), however, contradictory results in different studies were reported. To this end, we presented a systematic review aiming to summarize the prognostic significance of Twist in patients with NSCLC. 5 studies involving a total of 572 patients were identified. The result indicated that high Twist expression was significantly associated with a worse overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.19, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.64-2.94, p < 0.001; I(2) = 0.0%, fixed effect), recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 2.476, 95% CI = 1.728-3.547, p < 0.001; I(2) = 0.0%, fixed effect) and lymph node or other metastasis (odds rate (OR) = 0.419, 95% CI = 0.259-0.679, P < 0.001, fixed effect). Subgroup analysis revealed that the expression of Twist in Chinese patients might be more closely associated with the prognosis of NSCLC than in American patients. Overall, these results indicated that Twist over-expression in patients with NSCLC might be related to poor prognosis and serves as an unfavorable predictor of poor clinicopathological prognosis factor.