Circulating microRNA-141 as a Biomarker for Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

(1) Background and Objectives: Responding to the need for more optimized biomarkers for prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis, a high number of studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) could serve as novel, more reliable diagnostic tools. The usefulness of these miRNAs in assessing the presence of PCa is still under debate, given the discrepancies in their diagnostic performances. In this respect, hsa-miR-141 is among the miRNAs of particular interest, being very much investigated in PCa biology. (2) Material and Methods: Here, we provide a meta-analysis of miR-141 data published until May 2019, whose diagnostic accuracy was assessed using the Quality Assessment for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool, by analyzing several parameters including sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), negative likelihood ratio (LR-), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and the area under the curve (AUC). The six studies that matched our selection and were included in our meta-analysis comprise 283 PCa patients, 114 healthy controls, with 84 patients suffering from benign prostate diseases. (3) Results and Conclusions: Our results indicate a very good diagnostic accuracy for miRNA-141 (0.78 sensitivity, 0.96 specificity, DOR of 89, LR+ of 21, LR- of 0.23 and AUC of 0.87), underlying its utility as a PCa diagnostic biomarker.