Role of circulating tumor cells in diagnosis of lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: We systematically reviewed the literature relating to the diagnostic accuracy of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for the clinical determination of lung cancer. METHODS: This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CTCs for the clinical determination of lung cancer. The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched for relevant studies up to 31 May 2020. The numbers of patients with true positive, false positive, false negative, and true negative results were extracted from each individual study. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve values were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Twenty-one studies with 3997 subjects met the inclusion criteria. The overall diagnostic accuracy was assessed. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.72 (95%CI: 0.65–0.79) and 0.96 (95%CI: 0.91–0.98), respectively, and the pooled positive and negative likelihood ratios were 16.86 (95%CI: 7.65–37.12) and 0.29 (95%CI: 0.23–0.37), respectively. The combined diagnostic odds ratio was 58.12 (95%CI: 24.82–136.09). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that CTCs had good diagnostic value for detecting lung cancer.