The expression of circRNAs as a promising biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis of human cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: CircRNAs, a type of non-coding RNAs with special loop structure, of which the aberrant expression is closely related to tumor growth, proliferation, metastasis and recurrence. It remains unclear whether they have the potential to be biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. The study aims to clarify the relationship of circRNAs expression with cancers diagnosis and prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sensitivity, specificity, area under curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) were calculated to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy; Hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and recurrence free survival (RFS) were calculated to evaluate the association between circRNAs expression and survival of cancer patients. RESULTS: A total of 27 studies were involved in the meta-analysis, including 16 diagnostic and 11 prognostic articles. Among the diagnostic studies, 18 kinds of circRNAs had been investigated, in which 3 were up regulated and 15 were down regulated. Their pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 0.71(0.65–0.77), 0.77(0.72–0.81) and 0.81(0.77–0.84), respectively. In stratified analysis, a higher specificity was shown in circRNAs for diagnosing gastric cancer and hepatocellular cancer. 12 circRNAs were involved in the prognostic studies, including 6 up-regulated and 6 down-regulated circRNAs. Their overall HR of OS and DFS/RFS were 1.37(0.98–1.75) and 2.28 (0.77–3.79), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: CircRNAs have the potential to be biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. Further investigations are still needed to explore the clinical value of circRNAs as tumor markers.