Diagnostic accuracy of BRCA1–associated protein 1 in malignant mesothelioma: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Conventional measurements are not always helpful in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma (MM). Increasing studies indicate that loss of BRCA1–associated protein 1 (BAP1) detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a useful diagnostic marker for MM. In this meta-analysis, we investigated the diagnostic accuracy of BAP1 in MM. RESULTS: In total, 12 eligible studies with a total of 1824 patients were selected. Results indicated that loss of BAP1 sustained a pooled sensitivity of 0.56 (95% CI, 0.50–0.62), specificity of 1.00 (95% CI, 0.95–1.00), PLR of 548.82 (95% CI, 11.31–2.7 × 104), NLR of 0.44 (95% CI, 0.39–0.50), DOR of 1247.78 (95% CI, 25.08 −6.2 × 104) in discriminating MM from non-MM. The AUC of 0.72, reflecting the SROC, indicated moderate diagnostic accuracy. Subgroup analysis showed that BAP1 detection in histological specimens owned the higher diagnostic performance than cytological ones. In addition, BAP1 showed superior diagnostic accuracy in epithelioid MM than biphasic or sarcomatoid MM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library and reference lists of related articles were searched, and studies that evaluated the utility of BAP1 in MM were included. Data from eligible studies were pooled to estimate sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR). Summary receiver operating curves (SROC) was applied to estimate overall diagnostic accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Current meta-analysis indicates that detection of BAP1 by IHC is a useful diagnostic marker for MM. Loss of BAP1 almost provides confirming diagnosis for MM, while positive staining for BAP1 is not enough to exclude non-MM.