Evaluation of the Sensitivity and Specificity of MicroRNA in the Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objectives: New regulatory RNAs called microRNAs are about 22 nucleotides in length. Also, a number of human cancers are also caused by microRNAs; which function both as oncogenes and suppressors. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of MicroRNA in diagnosing cervical cancer in the present study.Methods: A search of the international databases PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ISI, Web of Knowledge, and Embase of keywords related to the study objectives was conducted until March 2023. A fixed effect model with the inverse-variance method was used to calculate effect size (95 confidence interval). The meta-analysis was performed using STATA/MP. V17 software.Results: A meta-analysis was conducted using nine articles in the present study. The sensitivity of microRNA-21 for diagnosis of cervical cancer was 86 (ES: 0.86 95% CI: 0.70, 1.01), specificity of microRNA-21 to diagnose cervical cancer was 84% (ES: 0.84 95% CI: 0.68, 1.00. The AUC of microRNA-21 on tissue models to diagnose cervical cancer was 85% (ES: 0.85 95% CI: 0.69, 1.02.Conclusions: According to the present meta-analysis and the role of microRNA-21 in cervical cancer progression, and considering its relationship with clinic pathological factors, it can be considered a differential marker with high sensitivity and specificity.