Aims: To determine whether circulating multiple miRNAs can be used as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis in breast cancer, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Materials & methods: After searching the databases of PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science, we used the bivariate meta-analysis model to summarize the diagnostic indices and plot the summary receiver operator characteristic curve.
Results: The summary estimates revealed that the pooled sensitivity was 88% (95% CI: 82-93%); specificity was 84% (95% CI: 74-91%); positive likelihood ratio was 4.69 (95% CI: 2.93-7.51); negative likelihood ratio was 0.15 (95% CI: 0.09-0.25); diagnostic odds ratio was 38.21 (95% CI: 13.41-108.85); and the area under the curve was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90-0.95).
Conclusion: These results suggested that circulating multiple miRNAs might serve as novel biomarkers for breast cancer, with a relatively high level of accuracy.
Keywords: breast cancer; circulating multiple miRNAs; diagnosis.