Meta-Analysis of Serum Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Precursor as a Biomarker for Diagnosis of Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

<strong><span style="font-size: small;">Background: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The serum level of gastrin-releasing peptide precursor (proGRP) is generally. elevated in patients with </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">small cell lung cancer (SCLC). However, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of serum proGRP in SCLC cases </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">remains controversial. The study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of this biomarker by meta-analysis. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Materials and Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The Cochrane, Clinical trials, Pubmed, Web of Science and Embase databases were searched and diagnostic </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">values were calculated or extracted. Statistical analysis was accomplished with RevMan 5.3 and STATA 12.0 software. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">A total of 27 studies with 7268 participants were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">and DOR were 0.754 (95% CI: 0.700-0.802), 0.945 (95% CI: 0.916-0.965), 13.804 (95% CI: 9.096-20.948), 0.260 (95% CI: 0.213-0.317) and 53.101 (95% CI: 34.327-82.145) respectively. The AUC was 0.910 (95% CI: 0.880-0.930). </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Significant publication bias was not found (</span></span><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">P </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">=0.622). </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusions: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The meta-analysis indicated that serum proGRP </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">is indeed a useful biomarker with good sensitivity and high specificity for diagnosis of SCLC. Therefore proGRP can be expected to be widely applied in the clinic for identification of lung cancer patients. </span></span>