title: Potential Role of Circulating MiR-21 in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Digestive System Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: Recent evidences indicate that circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) exhibit aberrant expression in the plasma of patients suffering from cancer compared to normal individuals, suggesting that it may be a useful noninvasion diagnostic method. MiR-21 plays crucial roles in carcinogenesis and can be served as a biomarker for the detection of various cancers. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis is to assess the potential role of miR-21 for digestive system cancer. By searching the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science for publications concerning the diagnostic value of miR-21 for digestive system cancer, total of 23 publications were included in this meta-analysis. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were used to check the overall test performance. For prognostic meta-analysis, pooled hazard ratios (HRs) of circulating miR-21 for survival were calculated. Totally 23 eligible publications were included in this meta-analysis (15 articles for diagnosis and 8 articles for prognosis). For diagnostic meta-analysis, the summary estimates revealed that the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.76 (95% CI = 0.70-0.82) and 0.84 (95% CI = 0.78-0.89). Besides, the area under the summary ROC curve (AUC) is 0.87. For prognostic meta-analysis, the pooled HR of higher miR-21 expression in circulation was 1.94 (95% CI = 0.99-3.82, P = 0.055), which indicated higher miR-21 expression could be likely to predict poorer survival in digestive system cancer. The subgroup analysis implied the higher expression of miR-21 was correlated with worse overall survival in the Asian population in digestive system cancer (HR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.21-4.77, P = 0.012). The current evidence suggests circulating miR-21 may be suitable to be a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for digestive system cancer in the Asians.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Gastroenterology (CQY, XYZ, YND, JY, GXZ), First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Department of Gastroenterology (CQY), Mingde Hospital Affiliated with Nanjing Medical University; First Clinical Medical College of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Chengqiang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yini
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Guoxin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012372:ROC Curve; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C524940:MIRN21 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs