B7-H4 expression and increased death risk of cancer patients: A meta-analysis

Objective The relationship between higher levels of B7-H4 expression and death risk of cancer patients remains to be clarified. In the current study, information from an ordinary scale and those from several outcome scales were combined to make a single estimate. PubMed databases were searched for survival studies on the hazard ratios (HR) of malignant tumors associated with higher B7-H4 expression from 1999 to 2010. Methods The fixed effect model was used to estimate the combined HRs of six studies. Sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the stability. Publication bias was also estimated. Six studies that meet the inclusion criteria were identified; these studies reported the associations between the higher B7-H4 expression and death risk of cancer patients. Results A 42% increase in death risk was observed in patients with higher B7-H4 expression (HR = 1.42; 95% confidence interval: 1.16–1.72). Sensitivity analyses found the results robust. The analysis shows that higher levels of B7-H4 expression are associated with the death risk of patients suffering from various cancers. Conclusion B7-H4 may be a negative regulatory molecule for antitumor immune responses and a molecular target for tumor immunotherapy.