Diagnostic accuracy of osteopontin plus alpha-fetoprotein in the hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Objective: Osteopontin (OPN) has been reported as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in many inconsistent results. This study demonstrates a systematic meta-analysis for the evaluation on diagnostic accuracy of serum or plasma OPN and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) alone and combined assays for HCC.& para;& para;Methods: Relevant literatures were searched in PubMed up to August 2016. The quality of each study was evaluated by QUADAS-2 (quality assessment for studies of diagnostic accuracy). Statistical analysis was performed by Meta-Disc 1.4 and Stata 12.0. The random-effect models were used to estimate pooled sensitivity, specificity and other diagnostic indicators of OPN and/or AFP in HCC.& para;& para;Results: A total of 14 case-control literatures (15 studies) met the inclusion criteria in this meta-analysis. The respective pooled diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 0.71 (95% Cl: 0.69-0.74) and 0.80 (95% Cl: 0.78-0.82) for OPN; 0.61 (95% Cl: 0.58-0.63) and 0.92 (95% Cl: 0.91-0.94) for AFP; 0.82 (95% Cl: 0.79-0.84) and 0.77 (95% Cl: 0.74-0.80) for OPN plus AFP. Their area under the curve (AUC) values were 0.8786, 0.8718 and 0.9005, respectively.& para;& para;Conclusion: Combination of OPN and AFP was better than OPN or AFP alone in diagnosis of HCC. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.