The diagnostic and prognostic value of tsRNAs in gastric cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACTBackground Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. Recent studies have shown that tsRNAs play important roles in GC and that changes in the expression levels of tsRNAs can be used for GC diagnosis and treatment response prediction.Research design and methods Hazard ratios (HRs), odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the correlation between tsRNA expression and prognosis and other clinicopathologic features of GC patients. The sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were analyzed to evaluate the diagnostic value of tsRNAs.Results The results showed that patients with tsRNA upregulation had a poor prognosis (HR = 2.48, 95% CI: 1.85–3.34), while patients with tsRNA downregulation had a favorable prognosis (HR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31–0.98). In addition, tsRNA expression was significantly correlated with various clinicopathological features in patients with GC. Finally, in diagnostic studies, GC-related tsRNAs could differentiate healthy controls (AUC = 0.81, DOR = 7.74) from patients with inflammation (AUC = 0.74, DOR = 4.44).Conclusions tsRNAs have potential clinical application in GC diagnosis and prognosis evaluation. It is necessary to further assess and verify the practicability and feasibility of additional specific tsRNAs as GC markers in the future.KEYWORDS: PrognosticdiagnostictsRNAsgastric cancermeta Abbreviations GC=gastric cancerCRC=colorectal cancertsRNA=tRNA-derived small RNAtRNA=transfer RNApre-tRNA=precursor tRNAncRNA=noncoding RNAtRF=tRNA-related fragmenttiRNA=tRNA halvePRISMA=preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysesHR=hazard ratioOR=odds ratioCI=confidence intervalTP=true positiveFP=false positiveTN=true negativeFN=false negativePLR=positive likelihood ratioNLR=negative likelihood ratioDOR=diagnostic odds ratioAUC=area under the curveNOS=Newcastle-Ottawa scoreQUADAS II=quality assessment for studies of diagnostic accuracy iiSROC=summary receiver operating characteristicOS=overall survivalDeclaration of interestsThe authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.Reviewer disclosuresPeer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.Author contributionsJing Gu initiated and designed this meta-analysis. Jing Gu and Qiankun Zhang were responsible for screening and evaluating the literature related to tsRNAs and GCs, and Hua Gao was responsible for intervening in the different opinions of Jing Gu and Qiankun Zhang. Weibing Wu collated and analyzed prognostic data, and Jia Li collated and analyzed diagnostic data. Jia Li and Hua Gao were responsible for the final review of the article. All the authors agreed to publish the final version.Availability of data and materialAll data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.Supplementary MaterialSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14737159.2023.2254237.Additional informationFundingThis study was supported by the Suzhou (Taicang) Science and Technology Development Plan [SKYD2022059], and Taicang Basic Research Program Projects [TC2021JCYL05].