After analyzing the clinical data of enrolled patients, we found that ZFAS1 was overexpressed in NPC patients, which was closely correlated with tumor size and lymph node metastasis of NPC.
In addition, this meta-analysis revealed that the upregulated expression of ZFAS1 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stage, and tumor size.
Subgroup analysis revealed that high ZFAS1 expression was significantly related to high incidence of LNM in subgroups of sample size more than 88 (OR: 3.16, 95% CI: 2.06-4.86, <i>P</i> < 0.001), non-digestive system malignancies (OR: 4.05, 95% CI: 2.49-6.60, <i>P</i> < 0.001), and studies reported in 2017 (OR: 4.86, 95% CI: 2.67-8.84, <i>P</i> < 0.001) without significant heterogeneity.