title: Diagnostic accuracy of osteopontin for malignant pleural mesothelioma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Osteopontin has been viewed as a promising biomarker for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM); however, the conclusions of various studies on diagnostic accuracy of osteopontin have not been consistent. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of circulating osteopontin for MPM.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using appropriate key words, scientific literature that evaluated circulating levels of osteopontin for the diagnosis of MPM was retrieved from electronic databases. Only articles published in English till March 26, 2013 were included in this study. The quality of the studies was assessed using the revised Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy (QUADAS-2) tools. The random-effects models were applied for analysing the performance of pooled characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six studies were included in the analysis. The overall diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 0.65 (95% CI: 0.60-0.70) and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.78-0.85), respectively. The area under summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curves (AUC) was 0.83. The diagnostic accuracy of serum and plasma osteopontin was comparable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Osteopontin is an effective marker for MPM diagnosis. However, more studies with a larger sample size and better design are needed to rigorously assess the diagnostic power of osteopontin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Region of PLA, Ji'nan, 250031, Shandong Province, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhi-De
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Region of PLA, Ji'nan, 250031, Shandong Province, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Chinese PLA (People's Liberation Army) General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Cui
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Region of PLA, Ji'nan, 250031, Shandong Province, PR China.
authors.forename: Chun-Mei
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Region of PLA, Ji'nan, 250031, Shandong Province, PR China. Electronic address: hcj6289@163.com.
authors.forename: Cheng-Jin
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000086002:Mesothelioma, Malignant; D053495:Osteopontin / Q000097:blood*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053495:Osteopontin
keywords: Diagnostic accuracy; Malignant pleural mesothelioma; Meta-analysis; Osteopontin; Systematic review