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. 2024 Mar 11:15:1352838.
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1352838. eCollection 2024.

Salivary miRNAs as auxiliary liquid biopsy biomarkers for diagnosis in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Huy Nguyen  1 , Taichiro Nonaka  2   3
Affiliations

Salivary miRNAs as auxiliary liquid biopsy biomarkers for diagnosis in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Huy Nguyen et al. Front Genet. .

Abstract

Objective: The healthcare system needs a novel approach to improve and diagnose early oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma against its low survival rate. We conduct a systematic review and a comprehensive meta-analysis for the diagnostic role of blood and salivary microRNAs (miRNAs). Methods: An unbiased and thorough literature search in PubMed yielded appropriate data from qualified articles regarding different miRNA biomarkers, method of extraction, research location, and year of publication. Stata was used to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: We included 9 studies with 399 qualified oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients, which yielded a high diagnostic accuracy of blood miRNAs in combination with salivary miRNAs with a sensitivity of 0.70 (p < 0.001), specificity of 0.75 (p = 0.26), diagnostic odds ratio of 7, and an area under the curve of 0.78. Conclusion: Combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy in detecting oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42024509424.

Keywords: circulating biomarker; head and neck cancer; liquid biopsy; saliva diagnostics; saliva exosomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) quality assessment of the 9 included studies.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Estimates on diagnostic performances for OPSCC by combined blood and salivary miRNAs. (A) Forest plot of the pooled sensitivity and specificity of combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs for diagnosing OPSCC. (B) SROC curve with estimates of pooled sensitivity and specificity of combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs in OPSCC diagnosis. SENS, sensitivity; SPEC, specificity; SROC, summary receiver operating characteristic; AUC, area under the SROC curve.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Estimates on diagnostic performances for OPSCC by blood miRNAs. (A) Forest plot of pooled sensitivity and specificity for blood-derived miRNAs for diagnosing OPSCC. (B) SROC curve with estimates of pooled sensitivity and specificity of blood miRNAs in OPSCC diagnosis.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Estimates on diagnostic performances for OPSCC within different categories of miRNAs. (A) Forest plot of the diagnostic likelihood ratio for combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs for diagnosing OPSCC. (B) Forest plot of the diagnostic likelihood ratio for blood miRNAs in OPSCC diagnosis. DLR, diagnostic likelihood ratio.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Estimates on diagnostic odds ratio for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) within different categories of miRNAs. (A) Forest plot of the diagnostic odds ratio for combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs for diagnosing OPSCC. (B) Forest plot of the diagnostic odds ratio for blood miRNAs in OPSCC diagnosis.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Deeks’ funnel asymmetry plots assessing publication bias within the diagnostic performance of miRNAs for OPSCC. (A) Deeks’ plot of the diagnostic odds ratio for combined blood- and saliva-derived miRNAs for diagnosing OPSCC. (B) Deeks’ plot of the diagnostic odds ratio for blood miRNAs in OPSCC diagnosis. ESS, effective sample size.
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