CK20 mRNA expression in serum as a biomarker for colorectal cancer diagnosis: A meta-analysis

: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of serumCK20 mRNA as a biomarker for colorectal cancer diagnosis by meta-analysis. Clinical studies related to serum CK20 mRNA expression for colorectal cancer diagnosis were searched in the databases of Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge, CNKI and Wanfang. The number of true positive (tp), false positive (fp), false negative (fn) and true negative (tn) of the original included publications were extracted by two reviewers independently. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likely hood ratio (+LR), negative likelyhood ratio (-LR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the symmetric ROC curve (AUC) were pooled by random or fixed effect method according to the statistical heterogeneity among the studies. After screening the databases, nineteen publications met the inclusion criteria and were finally included in this meta-analysis. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were pooled by random effect model(I2>50%). The pooled diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of CK20 mRNA in serum as biomarker for colorectal cancer were 0.49 (95% CI:0.46 to 0.51) and 0.94 (95%CI:0.92-0.96) respectively. The pooled +LR and -LR were 10.90 (95%CI:5.78 to 20.55) and 0.51 (95%CI:0.45 to 0.57) respectively by random-effect method. The pooled DOR was 22.31 with the 95% CI of 11.65 to 42.71. The pooled area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.72for CK20 mRNA in serum as a biomarker for colorectal cancer diagnosis. Conclusion Serum CK20 mRNA expression was significantly elevated in colorectal cancer patients which could be a promising serum biomarker for colorectal cancer diagnosis with high specificity.