Significance of epithelial‑to‑mesenchymal transition inducing transcription factors in predicting distance metastasis and survival in patients with colorectal cancer: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

Background: The clinical relevance of epithelial‑to‑mesenchymal transition (EMT) in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression has been highlighted over the last decade. Several EMT‑inducing transcription factors (EMT‑TFs) have been implicated in the regulation of EMT, including Twist, Snail1, Slug, ZEB1, and ZEB2. Here, this meta‑analysis aimed to predict the risk of distance metastasis and overall survival in CRC patients with high expression of EMT‑TFs. Materials and Methods: All eligible studies were searched in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The search was carried out to include literatures published as late as September 1, 2018. In overall, 16 studies that investigated the relationship between EMT‑TFs with distance metastasis and survival in CRC patients were included. In meta‑analysis, a pooled hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) were estimated for associations. Results: The results of this review indicated that expressions of all EMT‑TFs are significantly correlated with poor overall survival in CRC. Moreover, there are a significant association between Twist (OR, 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–2.09), Slug (OR, 3.43; 95% CI, 1.98–5.93), and ZEB2 (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.09–5.40) expression with distance metastatic in CRC patients. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the overexpression of EMT‑TFs plays a key role in increasing the risk of distance metastasis as well as decreasing overall survival in CRC patients.