Diagnostic accuracy of serum glypican-3 for hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Many individual studies have evaluated the diagnostic efficiency of serum glypican-3 (GPC-3) for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the results have been inconsistent. The aim of present study was to meta-analyze the overall diagnostic accuracy of serum GPC-3 for diagnosing HCC.

DESIGN AND METHODS:

English language studies which evaluated the diagnostic performance of GPC-3 and published before March 22, 2013 were retrieved. The quality of the studies was assessed by revised QUADAS tools. The performance characteristics were pooled and determined by random-effects models.

RESULTS:

Twelve studies with a total of 898 HCC patients and 835 non-HCC patients were included. For the studies in which the majority of reference participants had HBV or HCV infections, the overall diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 0.53 (95% CI: 0.49-0.57) and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.74-0.81), respectively. The area under summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curves (AUC) was 0.82. The major design deficiencies of included studies were differential verification bias, and a lack of clear exclusion and inclusion criteria.

CONCLUSIONS:

GPC-3 has moderate diagnostic accuracy for HCC. Due to the design limitations, results in published studies should be carefully interpreted. In addition, more well-designed studies with large sample sizes should be performed to rigorously evaluate the diagnostic value of the GPC-3.

• Authors: Xiao-Fei Liu, Zhi-De Hu, Xiao-Cui Liu, Yuan Cao, Chun-Mei Ding, Cheng-Jin Hu
• Journal: Clinical biochemistry (Clin Biochem) Vol. 47 Issue 3 Pg. 196-200 (Feb 2014) ISSN: 1873-2933 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 24362268 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Meta-Analysis, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Review, Systematic Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2014 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• GPC3 protein, human
• Glypicans

Topics

• Carcinoma, Hepatocellular (blood, diagnosis)
• Female
• Glypicans (blood)
• Humans
• Liver Neoplasms (blood, diagnosis)
• Male
• Sensitivity and Specificity