Identification of Circulating MicroRNAs as Novel Potential Biomarkers for Gastric Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Recent studies show that microRNAs (miRNAs) in serum or plasma can be stably detected and used as potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis. To systematically evaluate circulating miRNAs from numerous gastric cancer (GC) expression profiling studies and to determine miRNA biomarkers for GC detection. A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies comparing the circulating miRNA expressions between GC patients and healthy controls were carried out. An miRNA ranking system that considered the number of comparisons in agreement, total number of samples, and average fold change was used. Then the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) results of the top miRNAs were combined to further evaluate their diagnostic value by using Meta-disc 1.4. A total of 35 miRNAs were reported in the 22 included studies, with 7 miRNAs reported in at least 2 studies. MiR-21 is the most consistently reported miRNA with upregulation. In further analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of summary ROC for miR-21 in GC diagnosis are 0.78 (95 % CI 0.71-0.85), 0.89 (95 % CI 0.82-0.94), and 0.91, respectively. Circulating miR-21 can serve as a potential biomarker for detection of GC.