Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Early detection and precise diagnosis are critical for the patients with lung cancer. Increasing evidence has suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the diagnosis of lung cancer. To evaluate the overall diagnostic performance of sputum miRNAs for the detection of lung cancer, a meta-analysis was performed.
Methods: A systematic search for published literature evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of sputum miRNAs in lung cancer was performed to determine pooled sensitivity and specificity. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to assess the overall test performance. Subgroup analysis was utilized to explore potential sources of heterogeneity in the included studies.
Results: Eight studies with a total of 514 patients and 491 controls were included in this meta-analysis. Sputum miRNAs had a pooled sensitivity of 0.70 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.66-0.70) and a pooled specificity of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86-0.91) for the detection of lung cancer, with an area under the summary receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.83. Significant interstudy heterogeneity for specificity was observed, with miRNA profiles being a possible source.
Conclusion: Sputum miRNAs are potentially useful noninvasive markers for diagnosis of lung cancer. The diagnostic specificity of sputum miRNAs may be influenced by the miRNA profiles. It would be important for further work to evaluate the generalizability of our results by methodologically rigorous studies on a well-defined patient population.