Objective: To evaluate the overall diagnostic value of human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) combined with carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) in endometrial carcinoma (EC) based on a meta-analysis of all eligible studies. Methods: The PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, CNKI, VANFUN, and VIP databases were searched by index words to identify eligible studies and also to search for relevant literature sources that had been published by January 2019. Eligible studies included prospective cohort studies or cross-sectional studies. The heterogeneity of the included studies was used to select appropriate effect models to calculate summary weighted sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratios (DORs). The summary receiver operational characteristic (SROC) analysis was summarized for the EC. Results: In total, 25 studies that had explored the diagnostic accuracy of HE4 combined with CA125 for EC were included in this meta-analysis. Nine were from English language articles and 16 from Chinese language articles. The global sensitivity and specificity of HE4 combined with CA125 for EC were as follows: 66% (95% CI: 60-72) and 92% (95% CI: 88-95), respectively. The global positive likelihood ratio and global negative likelihood ratio of HE4 combined with CA125 for EC were as follows: 8.03 (95% CI: 5.36-12.04) and 0.37 (95% CI: 0.31-0.44), respectively. The global DOR was19.59 (95% CI: 12.25-31.32) for IL-6. The area under the SROC was high for HE4 combined with CA125 (AUC = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.83-0.89). Conclusion: This study provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of HE4 combined with CA125 for EC. The results indicate that HE4 combined with CA125 is highly accurate for the diagnosis of EC.
Keywords: carbohydrate antigen 125; diagnostic accuracy; endometrial carcinoma; meta-analysis; serum human epididymis protein 4.