Magnifying endoscopy in detecting early gastric cancer: A network meta-analysis of prospective studies

BACKGROUND: Conventional white-light imaging endoscopy (C-WLI) had a significant number of misdiagnosis in early gastric cancer (EGC), and magnifying endoscopy (ME) combined with different optical imaging was more accurate in the diagnosis of EGC. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of ME and compare the accuracy of ME with different optical imaging in detecting EGC. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify all relevant studies. Pair-wise meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of ME, and Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to combine direct and indirect evidence and estimate the relative effects. RESULTS: Eight prospective studies were identified with a total of 5948 patients and 3 optical imaging in ME (ME with WLI (M-WLI), ME with narrow-band imaging (M-NBI), and ME with blue laser imaging (M-BLI)). Pair-wise meta-analysis showed a higher accuracy of ME than C-WLI (OR: 2.97, 95% CI: 1.68∼5.25). In network meta-analysis, both M-NBI and M-BLI were more accurate than M-WLI (OR: 2.56, 95% CI: 2.13∼3.13; OR: 3.13, 95% CI: 1.85∼5.71). There was no significant difference between M-NBI and M-BLI. CONCLUSION: ME was effective in improving the detecting rate of EGC, especially with NBI or BLI.