The aim of the present study was to elucidate the diagnostic and prognostic implications of parafibromin immunohistochemistry (IHC) in parathyroid carcinoma (PC). We performed a meta-analysis to examine the rate of loss of parafibromin expression from 18 eligible studies. In addition, a diagnostic test accuracy review was conducted to investigate the diagnostic role of parafibromin in PC. The rates of loss of parafibromin expression were 0.522 (95% CI: 0.444-0.599), 0.291 (95% CI: 0.207-0.391), 0.027 (95% CI: 0.011-0.064), and 0.032 (95% CI: 0.008-0.119) in PC, atypical parathyroid adenoma (APA), parathyroid adenoma (PA), and parathyroid hyperplasia, respectively. In the diagnostic test accuracy review for diagnosis of PC, the pooled sensitivity and specificity of parafibromin IHC was 0.53 (95% CI: 0.46-0.59) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.95-0.97), respectively. The diagnostic odds ratio and the area under curve on summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 25.31 (95% CI: 8.91-71.87) and 0.7954, respectively. In addition, the meta-analysis demonstrated that loss of parafibromin expression was significantly correlated with worse disease-free survival (hazard ratio: 2.832; 95% CI: 1.081-7.421). Loss of parafibromin IHC expression was significantly higher in PC than in APA, PA, and parathyroid hyperplasia. Parafibromin IHC could be useful for diagnosis and prediction of prognosis of PC in daily practice.
Keywords: diagnostic accuracy; immunohistochemistry; parafibromin; parathyroid carcinoma; prognosis.
© 2019 The Author(s).