Expression characteristics of the yes-associated protein in breast cancer: A meta-analysis.

Background: The yes-associated protein (YAP) gene plays an important role in many malignant tumors, but its clinical significance in breast cancer remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the significance of YAP expression in breast cancer using meta-analysis.

Methods: Seven databases will be searched to collect the case-control studies published on the association between YAP expression and clinical pathogenic features in breast cancer until December 2021: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Wan Fang Database, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. To perform meta-analysis, STATA 14.0 and RevMan5 software were used with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) as the effect index, and publication bias and sensitivity analysis were subsequently tested.

Results: Form a total of 10 articles used in this study, 8 studies consisted of nontriple negative breast cancer (non-TNBC) and the other 2 of TNBC. Meta-analysis indicated a positive expression rate of YAP in non-TNBC tissues that was lower than in normal breast tissue (OR = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.10-0.21, P < .001). In contrast, the positive rate of YAP expression in TNBC was significantly higher than that in normal breast tissue (OR = 18.23, 95% CI = 8.20-40.52, P < .001). Furthermore, the positive expression rate was higher in the patients with lymph node metastasis, higher tumor node metastasis stage and histologic grade, and larger diameter in TNBC. However, there was no statistical difference in the positive expression rate of YAP between non-TNBC patients and lymph node metastasis, tumor node metastasis stage, histologic grade, and tumor size.

Conclusions: YAP may participate in the occurrence and development of non-TNBC as a tumor suppressor gene; however, it may also be a carcinogenic factor in TNBC and may be a potential therapeutic target for TNBC.