Potential role of microRNA-126 in the diagnosis of cancers: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Cancer has become a major public concern all over the world and early diagnosis of cancer is of great benefit for treatment and prognosis. Several studies have investigated the association between abnormal circulating microRNA-126 (miR-126) expression and the risk of various cancers, but the results are inconsistent. Therefore, this meta-analysis was carried out to assess the potential diagnostic value of miR-126 for cancer. METHODS: Relevant studies were searched from PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science and we calculated the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the summary receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) to assess the diagnostic value of miR-126 for cancer detection. RESULTS: A total of 745 cancer patients and 749 controls from 11 studies of 7 papers were included in this meta-analysis. The summary estimates revealed that the pooled sensitivity was 68% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 60–75%), the specificity was 76% (95% CI: 65–85%), the PLR was 2.87 (95% CI: 1.96–4.21), the NLR was 0.42 (95% CI: 0.35–0.52), the DOR was 7 (95% CI: 4–11), and the AUC was 0.77 (95%CI: 0.73–0.80). Moreover, the sample type, cancer type, sample size, and quality score might be sources of heterogeneity. CONCLUSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that miR-126 has great potential to be a noninvasive biomarker in the diagnosis of cancer. However, more well-designed studies with larger sample size on the diagnostic value of miR-126 for cancer are needed in the future.