Prognostic role of D-dimer in patients with lung cancer: a meta-analysis

D-dimer detection in patients suffering from a variety of different types of cancer has become a hot point as an emerging and promising biomarker. In this study, therefore, we evaluated the prognostic role of D-dimer in lung cancer. Initial literature was identified using the PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI. The primary data was hazard ratio (HR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI) of survival outcomes in candidate articles, including overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Finally, 11 eligible studies were included in this meta-analysis, which were published between 1996 and 2013. The estimated pooled HR and 95 % CI for OS of all studies was 2.06 (95 % CI 1.64-2.58, p < 0.00001) and the HR and 95 % CI for DFS in one study was 3.38 (95 % CI 1.17-9.75, p = 0.002). The HRs and 95 % CIs for OS in Asian and non-Asian patients were 2.48 (95 % CI 1.60-3.84, p < 0.0001) and 1.89 (95 % CI 1.44-2.47, p < 0.00001), respectively. When we further analyzed the data by various detecting methods, the pooled HR and 95 % CI for OS were 3.22 (95 % CI 1.99-5.21, p < 0.00001) for ELISA, 1.52 (95 % CI 1.25-1.86, p < 0.0001) for Latex assay, and 1.79 (95 % CI 1.19-2.69, p = 0.005) for immunoturbidimetry assay. We also did subgroup analysis according to the ratio of histological type and clinical stage. All the above analysis had positive results. This meta-analysis showed that D-dimer had a fine predictive role in lung cancer patients, especially in Asian group. Also, it demonstrated that D-dimer had a stronger predictive value by using the method ELISA.