title: MicroRNAs as a potential tool in the differential diagnosis of thyroid cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and its incidence has been increasing over the last 30 years. Several studies have suggested that miRNAs may play a significant role in the differential diagnosis of indeterminate thyroid nodules. To systematically evaluate the utility of miRNAs in discriminating malignant thyroid nodules from benign ones on fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) samples, a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literatures were carried out.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three hundred and sixty-one samples, obtained from 341 patients, were included in the research, and summary sensitivities (SEN), specificities (SPE), positive likelihood ratios, negative likelihood ratios and diagnostic odds ratio were calculated. Then, summary receiver operating characteristic curves (SROCs) and areas under the SROC curves (AUCs) were calculated to further estimate the overall diagnostic value of miRNAs in thyroid cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall pooled SEN, SPE and AUC are 0·75, 0·81 and 0·89, respectively. For multiple miRNAs assays, the pooled SEN, SPE and AUC are 0·87, 0·75 and 0·68, respectively. For single miRNA assays, the corresponding results are 0·71, 0·84 and 0·87, respectively. The corresponding statistical results for differentiating indeterminate FNAB samples are 0·92, 0·68 and 0·86, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our current meta-analysis suggests that miRNAs may serve as a novel diagnostic tool in distinguishing malignant thyroid nodules from benign ones on FNAB specimens. In addition, subgroup analysis suggests that a panel of miRNAs may have a higher sensitivity but a relatively lower specificity than that of single miRNA in distinguishing thyroid nodules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Jun
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chen-Tian
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Ling
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Quan-Yong
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D012372:ROC Curve; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs