Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) has been thought to play an important role in breast cancer tumorigenesis and progression. Various studies have focused on the association between NGAL and breast cancer. The aim of this meta-analysis was to establish the overall accuracy of the NGAL test in the diagnosis of breast cancer. A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using PubMed, OVID, ScienceDirect and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases, and our screening covered all published papers until November 2012. The relevant papers were selected according to stringent inclusion criteria. Essential data were abstracted from the included papers and further analysed by a systematic meta-analysis. The present meta-analysis included four study papers. The summary estimate was 64% (95% CI, 0.59-0.69) for sensitivity and 87% (95% CI, 0.81-0.92) for specificity. The positive likelihood (PLR), negative likelihood (NLR) and diagnostic odds (DOR) ratios were 5.63 (95% CI, 3.63-8.74), 0.32 (95% CI, 0.14-0.71) and 18.02 (95% CI, 9.84-32.98), respectively. The area under the summary ROC curve (AUC) for the diagnosis of breast cancer was 0.9008. Thus, NGAL is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of breast cancer.
Keywords: breast cancer; diagnosis; lipocalin-2; meta-analysis; neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin.