Abstract
MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) has been reported as the potential novel diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer in several studies, but their results were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a systematic analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of miR-21 in detecting breast cancer. A comprehensive electronic and manual search was conducted for relevant literatures through several databases up to November 9, 2015. QUADAS-2 was used to assess the quality of the studies included in the study. All statistical analyses were performed using Meta-Disc 1.4 and Stata 12.0. Eleven studies with a total of 918 breast cancer patients and 613 controls were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.69–0.75), 0.80 (95% CI: 0.77–0.83), 3.37 (95% CI: 2.24–5.07), 0.30 (95% CI: 0.19–0.50), and 11.79 (95% CI: 5.23–26.57), respectively. The area under the curve of SROC was 0.8517. In conclusion, our analyses suggested that miR-21 is a promising biomarker in diagnosing breast cancer. For clinical purpose, further large-scale studies are warranted to validate its clinical application.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide
The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were 0.72, 0.80, 3.37, 0.30, and 11.79, respectively
The previous studies showed that the circulating tumor biomarkers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 153 (CA153) are already applied in clinic, but these biomarkers are not useful to detect early breast cancer due to their low sensitivity and they have long been used as prognostic markers to monitor disease progression or recurrence [3,4,5]
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. breast cancer incidence rates still increases in many Western countries, mortality rates have been decreasing over the past two decades due to early detection and improved treatment [1]. Early detection and diagnosis has important clinical significances for breast cancer. The previous studies showed that the circulating tumor biomarkers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 153 (CA153) are already applied in clinic, but these biomarkers are not useful to detect early breast cancer due to their low sensitivity and they have long been used as prognostic markers to monitor disease progression or recurrence [3,4,5]. Several studies have reported miR21 as the potential novel diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer, but their results were inconsistent. A recent study suggested that the circulating miR-21 could serve as a potential serum-based biomarker for breast cancer detection in Chinese population, with 80.0% sensitivity and 87.7% specificity [10]. We conducted a systematic analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of miR-21 in detecting breast cancer
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