title: Novel blood-based microRNA biomarkers for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, several studies have shown that blood-based microRNAs in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) could be aberrantly expressed. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate blood-based microRNAs as novel biomarkers for diagnosis of PC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eligible studies which had evaluated the diagnostic performance of blood-based microRNAs and had been published from February 2004 to February 2014 were retrieved. The quality of the studies was evaluated with the QUADAS-2 tool. The performance characteristics were pooled using random-effects models. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA and Meta-Disc1.4 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The global meta-analysis included 12 studies from 8 articles, which contained 1,060 blood-based samples of PC patients and 935 blood-based samples of non-PC patients. Summary results suggested pooled sensitivity of 0.87 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.85-0.89), specificity 0.92 (95% CI, 0.90-0.94), positive likelihood ratio 11.18 (95% CI, 5.57-22.46), negative likelihood ratio 0.16 (95% CI, 0.11-0.23), diagnostic odds ratio 88.98 (95% CI, 39.85-198.69) and the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve 0.96.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis demonstrated blood-based microRNA expression profiles with the potential to discriminate PC patients from non-PC patients, which have moderate diagnostic accuracy. However, further validation studies are needed for their clinical significance in the diagnosis of PC to be established.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated With Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai - PR China.
authors.forename: Qing-Cai
authors.initials: QC
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Wang-Wang
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Zi-Qiang
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Hong-Cheng
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ze-Zhi
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Zhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Xin-Yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D012372:ROC Curve; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012107:Research Design; D058028:Research Report / Q000592:standards*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs