Prognostic and Clinic Pathological Value of Cx43 Expression in Glioma: A Meta-Analysis.

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) composed of connexin proteins is considered vital to cancer onset and progression since 50 years ago based on Lowenstein and Kano's works, however altered expression of connexins is still a lesser known "hallmark" of cancer. Although many studies support the hypothesis that connexins are tumor suppressors, recent evidence indicates that, in some tumor types including glioma, they may play contradictory role in some specific stages of tumor progression. We thus conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic role of Cx43 in glioma for the unanswered questions that whether Cx43 is a beneficial or insalubrity factor for glioma.