title: The predictive value of cervical lymph node metastasis through sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with oral cancer: A meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the predictive value of cervical lymph node metastasis through sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with oral cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two authors independently searched the databases of PubMed, Cochrane central register of controlled trials, EMBASE, and CNKI to find the potential suitable diagnostic study related to SLNB. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likely hood ratio (+LR), negative likely hood ratio (-LR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were pooled by Meta-DiSc1.4 software. The publication bias was assessed by funnel plot and line regression test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After electronic searching the related databases, we finally included twenty diagnostic studies. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, +LR, and DOR were 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.88-0.94), 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99-1.00), 35.52 (95% CI: 19.19-65.75), and 323.50 (95% CI: 148.27-705.83), respectively, with fixed-effect model. Moreover, the pooled -LR was 0.13 (95% CI: 0.07-0.23) by random-effect model. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve of SLNB for cervical lymph node metastasis was 0.99.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SLNB had very high sensitivity and specificity for productizing cervical lymph node metastasis in oral cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, The People's Hospital of Lishui, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Ren
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, The People's Hospital of Lishui, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, The People's Hospital of Lishui, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, The People's Hospital of Lishui, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Tonghai
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, The People's Hospital of Lishui, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Liujun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D017594:Publication Bias; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D000071036:Sentinel Lymph Node / Q000473:pathology*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy