The value of miR-155 as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer: a systematic review with meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Recently, a growing number of studies have reported the coorelation between miR-155 and the diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer, but results of these researches were still controversial due to insufficient sample size. Thus, we carried out the systematic review and meta-analysis to figure out whether miR-155 could be a screening tool in the detection and prognosis of lung cancer. METHODS: A meta-analysis of 13 articles with 19 studies was performed by retrieving the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. We screened all correlated literaters until December 1st, 2018. For the diagnosis analysis of miR-155 in lung cancer, sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were pooled to evaluate the accuracy of miRNA-155 in the diagnosis of lung cancer. For the prognosis analysis of miR-155 in lung cancer, the pooled HRs and 95% CIs of miR-155 for overall survival/disease free survival/progression-free survival (OS/DFS/PFS) were calculated. In addition, Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were performed to distinguish the potential sources of heterogeneity between studies. RESULTS: For the diagnostic analysis of miR-155 in lung cancer, the pooled SEN and SPE were 0.82 (95% CI: 0.72–0.88) and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.71–0.84), respectively. Besides, the pooled PLR was 3.75 (95% CI: 2.76–5.10), NLR was 0.23 (95% CI: 0.15–0.37), DOR was 15.99 (95% CI: 8.11–31.52) and AUC was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.84–0.90), indicating a significant value of miR-155 in the lung cancer detection. For the prognostic analysis of miR-155 in lung cancer, up-regulated miRNA-155 expression was not significantly associated with a poor OS (pooled HR = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.66–2.40) or DFS/PFS (pooled HR = 1.28, 95% CI: 0.82–1.97). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis demonstrated that miR-155 could be a potential biomarker for the detection of lung cancer but not an effective biomarker for predicting the outcomes of lung cancer. Furthermore, more well-designed researches with larger cohorts were warranted to confirm the value of miR-155 for the diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer.