Nitric oxide in occurrence, progress and therapy of lung Cancer: a systemic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in lung cancer. However, the results of previous studies about NO in the occurrence, progress and therapy were not consistent. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between NO and lung cancer. METHOD: We carried out comprehensive search in the databases, and collected related studies. The data of fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) or blood NO in different populations (lung cancer patients and control subjects) and different time points (before therapy and after therapy) were extracted by two investigators. A random effect model was applied to analyze the differences of FeNO and blood NO in different populations and different time points. To further compare NO level of each subgroup with different pathological types and different stages, a network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed. RESULTS: Fifty studies including 2551 cases and 1691 controls were adopted in this meta-analysis. The FeNO (SMD 3.01, 95% CI 1.89–4.13, p < 0.00001) and blood NO (SMD 1.34, 95% CI 0.84–1.85, p < 0.00001) level in lung cancer patients was much higher than that in control subjects. NMA model indicated blood NO level in each cancer type except SCLC was higher than that in control patients. There was no significant difference of blood NO level among four kinds of lung cancer patients. Blood NO level in LCC patients (SUCRA = 83.5%) was the highest. Blood NO level in advanced stage but not early stage was higher than that in control subjects. Patients in advanced stage (SUCRA = 95.5%) had the highest blood NO level. No significant difference of FeNO (SMD -0.04, 95% CI -0.46-0.38, p > 0.05) and blood NO level (SMD -0.36, 95% CI -1.08-0.36, p > 0.05) was observed between pretreatment and posttreatment in all patients. However, FeNO level elevated (SMD 0.28, 95% CI 0.04–0.51, p = 0.02) and blood NO level decreased in NSCLC patients (SMD -0.95, 95% CI -1.89-0.00, p = 0.05) after therapy. CONCLUSION: FeNO and blood NO level would contribute to diagnosis of lung cancer and evaluation of therapy effect, especially for NSCLC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08430-2.