Published in:
01-05-2014 | Review
Identification of Circulating MicroRNAs as Novel Potential Biomarkers for Gastric Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Published in: Digestive Diseases and Sciences | Issue 5/2014
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Background
Recent studies show that microRNAs (miRNAs) in serum or plasma can be stably detected and used as potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis.
Objectives
To systematically evaluate circulating miRNAs from numerous gastric cancer (GC) expression profiling studies and to determine miRNA biomarkers for GC detection.
Methods
A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies comparing the circulating miRNA expressions between GC patients and healthy controls were carried out. An miRNA ranking system that considered the number of comparisons in agreement, total number of samples, and average fold change was used. Then the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) results of the top miRNAs were combined to further evaluate their diagnostic value by using Meta-disc 1.4.
Results
A total of 35 miRNAs were reported in the 22 included studies, with 7 miRNAs reported in at least 2 studies. MiR-21 is the most consistently reported miRNA with upregulation. In further analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of summary ROC for miR-21 in GC diagnosis are 0.78 (95 % CI 0.71–0.85), 0.89 (95 % CI 0.82–0.94), and 0.91, respectively.
Conclusion
Circulating miR-21 can serve as a potential biomarker for detection of GC.