Abstract
BACKGROUND: New prospect of cancer therapeutical management seems to be early diagnosis and prognosis prediction by microRNAs. The aim of our study is to explore the role of miR-525 in cancer diagnosis and prognosis through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: We conducted systematic search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang databases as at November 25, 2023, regardless of languages. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were extracted for diagnostic meta-analysis, while hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for prognostic meta-analysis. Subgroup analysis and publication bias analysis were performed appropriately to investigate possible sources of heterogeneity. RESULTS: A total of 8 studies were included in the meta-analysis, of which 7 were used for diagnostic meta-analysis, covering 559 patients, and 3 were used for prognostic meta-analysis, covering 324 patients. The pooled sensitivity was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.70-0.79), specificity was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68-0.78), DOR was 13.08 (95% CI: 4.18-40.91), and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.83-0.89). Subgroup analysis showed that miR-525 may have good diagnostic ability in the early tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage of cancer. Prognostic meta-analysis showed that low miR-525 expression in patients was associated with preferable survival (HR =0.17, 95% CI: 0.07-0.41). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that miR-525 could be used as a potential biomarker for cancer patients. Low expression of miR-525 in cancers predicted a good prognosis.