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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2025; 17(12): 110395
Published online Dec 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i12.110395
Published online Dec 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i12.110395
Cancer-associated fibroblasts, clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of liver cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on real-world research
Yu-Hao Wei, Xue-Lei Ma, Department of Biotherapy, Cancer Center and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Wen-Jing Jiang, Shi-Qian Wang, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Yu-Long Cai, Division of Biliary Surgery, Department of General Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Yu-Long Cai, Research Center for Biliary Diseases, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Yu-Long Cai and Xue-Lei Ma.
Author contributions: Wei YH was responsible for conceptualization, methodology, literature retrieval, data curation, original draft writing, and revision; Jiang WJ and Wang SQ each participated in literature retrieval, data curation, and revision; Cai YL provided expert guidance during the major revision, contributed to conceptual refinement, and critically reviewed the revised manuscript; Ma XL took charge of supervision, critical revision of the manuscript, and project administration; and project administration; Cai YL and Ma XL contributed equally to this article, they are the co-corresponding authors of this manuscript; and all the authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Sichuan Science and Technology Program, No. 2024NSFSC1936.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Lei Ma, Department of Biotherapy, Cancer Center and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Alley, Wuhou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. drmaxuelei@gmail.com
Received: June 10, 2025
Revised: July 22, 2025
Accepted: October 23, 2025
Published online: December 15, 2025
Processing time: 188 Days and 2.3 Hours
Revised: July 22, 2025
Accepted: October 23, 2025
Published online: December 15, 2025
Processing time: 188 Days and 2.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This meta-analysis reveals that high expression of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), particularly marked by α-smooth muscle actin, is significantly associated with poor overall survival in liver cancer, including hepatocellular car