The diagnostic value of serum miR-21 in patients with ovarian cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: There have been a variety of published studies on the expression of serum miR-21 in patients with ovarian cancer associated with the diagnostic value of ovarian cancer, but the conclusions are not clearly elucidated. This study aims to evaluate the value of serum miR-21 expression in the diagnosis of patients with ovarian cancer by meta-analysis. METHODS: Databases, such as PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China WanFang, were searched for relevant studies upon the correlation between the expression of serum miR-21 and the diagnostic value of ovarian cancer from inception to March 7, 2022. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata 15.0 software. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) were calculated. The meta-regression analysis and subgroup analysis were used to explore the sources of heterogeneity. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) system was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature. RESULTS: A total of 6 articles were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, and DOR were 0.81 (95%CI: 0.73–0.88), 0.82 (95%CI: 0.75–0.87), 4.51 (95%CI: 3.22–6.31), 0.23 (95%CI: 0.16–0.33), and 19.87 (95% CI: 11.27–35.03), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.89 (95%CI: 0.85–0.91). No significant publication bias was found (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum miR-21 has a good diagnostic value for ovarian cancer, which can be an ideal diagnostic biomarker for ovarian cancer. However, we should gingerly use miR-21 as a diagnostic reference standard, due to the limited number of included studies and heterogeneity.