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Background: Recent studies have highlighted the potential diagnostic values of microRNAs (miRNA) in various cancers involving oral cancer. This meta-analysis sought to summarize the global diagnostic accuracy of miRNAs for patients with oral cancer (OC).
Methods: A systematic review of multiple databases was performed to obtain original studies fulfilling search criteria and the quality of studies was assessed by the QUADAS tool. The bivariate meta-analysis model was employed to plot the summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve. Influence analysis, meta-regression, and publication bias assay were all conducted using Stata 12.0 software. The trim-fill adjustment method was used to further assess the possible effect of publication bias.
Results: A total of 8 studies were included. The SROC analysis showed that miRNA profiling allowed for the discrimination between patients with high-risk oral lesions (OC or pre-cancer) and healthy donors, with a sensitivity of 0.84 (95% CI: 0.78 - 0.88) and specificity of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.78 - 0.87), corresponding to an area under curve (AUC) of 0.90. Our subgroup analyses suggested that miRNA signature harbored higher accuracy in diagnosing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) than pre-cancer lesions (AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.90, 0.83, or 0.82, respectively). Moreover, stratified analyses revealed that parallel miRNA profiling, plasma- and Caucasianbased analyses all conferred promising accuracies for OC detection. The funnel plot assay manifested evidence of a publication bias. After the adjustment by the trim and fill method, the pooled adjusted efforts were slightly attenuated.
Conclusions: MiRNA profiles hallmark a potential diagnostic value for detection of OC and potentially malignant disorders. Further studies should be performed to rigorously evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of miRNA profiling for OC.
DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2015.150802
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