| Objective: Circulating cell-free DNA(cfDNA)is extracted from plasma,serum or other body fluid by non-invasive technique,and expected to be a biomarker for the survival prediction and tumor burden of breast cancer(BC).However,its prognostic value in patients with BC is currently under debate.The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the relationship between cf DNA and survival outcome in patients with BC.Methods: Pub Med,Embase,Web of Science,China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)、the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database(CBM)、Wanfang Database(inception to February,2018)were searched for the literatures about relationship between cf DNA and prognosis of patients with BC.Overall survival(OS)and disease/progression/relapse-free survival(DFS/PFS/RFS)were regard as endpoint events,and the hazard ratios(HR)and its 95% confidence intervals(CI)were pooled by the Stata12.0 software.Results:This meta-analysis included a total of 10 eligible literatures and 2730 patients with BC.The pooled HR with 95% CI showed that cf DNA is the risk factor for OS and DFS/PFS/RFS in patients with BC.Although publication bias was found in the studies regarding OS and DFS/PFS/RFS,further trim and fill analysis revealed that the adjusted HR was close to the original HR,showing that the result of study was stable.Subgroup analyses demonstrated the role of cf DNA as a strong prognostic marker in patients with BC,regardless of cf DNA marker,sampling time,sample source,detection method,clinical stage,sample size or area.Conclusion: This meta-analysis indicated that cf DNA is the potential biomarker for evaluating the prognosis of patients with BC. |
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