title: Clinically relevant circulating microRNA profiling studies in pancreatic cancer using meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) is the most lethal gastrointestinal (GI) tumor. Although many studies on differentially expressed miRNAs as candidate biomarkers of pancreatic cancer have been published, reliability of these findings generated from investigations performed in single laboratory settings remain unclear.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 29 articles with a total of 2,225 patients and 1,618 controls included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 82% (95% CI, 79-85%); the specificity was 85% (95% CI, 79-89%); and area under the curve (AUC) was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.86-0.92). Subgroup analyses indicated that there were significant divergences between Caucasian and Asian subgroups for circulating miRNA analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  To comprehensively investigate the potential utility of miRNAs as biomarkers of the disease, we searched publications diagnosing PaCa using miRNAs from PubMed, Medline, Embase, Google Scholar and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. The sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve were used to examine the overall test performance, and heterogeneity was analyzed with the I2 test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our analysis demonstrated that multiple miRNAs (SEN: 85%; SPE: 89%; AUC: 0.93) were more accurate for diagnosing PaCa than a single miRNA (SEN: 78%; SPE: 79%; AUC: 0.84), and future studies are still needed to confirm the diagnostic value of these pooled miRNAs for PaCa.
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zenglin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.affiliation: Center for Gene Diagnosis, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Song-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Gene Diagnosis, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing-Tao
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qianlin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chunxia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Genomics Core, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jianqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Jinshan District, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: SROC; diagnostics; meta-analysis; multiple miRNA; pancreatic cancer