Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common form of thyroid cancer. Several studies have proposed serum microRNAs (miRNAs) as novel biomarkers for diagnosing PTC. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis aiming to investigate the overall diagnostic accuracy of serum miRNAs in PTC detection. Three online databases including PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library were searched up to 1 May 2021. We systematically reviewed studies evaluating the value of serum miRNAs in diagnosing PTC, and then summarized the area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio to assess the accuracy of serum miRNAs for the discrimination between patients with PTC and patients with benign thyroid nodules and healthy controls. We included 32 studies from 6 articles. Overall, there were 463 PTC patients, 334 patients with benign thyroid nodules, and 104 healthy controls. The results showed that the summary sensitivity and specificity were 76% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 68%‒83%) and 86% (95% CI: 80%‒91%), respectively, and that the summary AUROC was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86‒0.91), when serum miRNAs were used for discriminating between PTC patients and those with benign nodules. On the other hand, the summary sensitivity and specificity of serum miRNAs for discriminating between PTC patients and healthy controls were 82% (95% CI: 77%‒86%) and 84% (95% CI: 76%‒90%), respectively, and the summary AUROC was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86‒0.92). We found that serum miRNAs have good diagnostic performance for the discrimination between patients with PTC and patients with benign nodules and healthy controls, and thus have considerable potential as novel minimally invasive tools for detecting PTC.

中文翻译：

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血清 microRNA 作为诊断乳头状甲状腺癌的生物标志物：一项荟萃分析。

甲状腺乳头状癌 (PTC) 是最常见的甲状腺癌。一些研究提出血清 microRNA (miRNA) 作为诊断 PTC 的新型生物标志物。在这项研究中，我们进行了一项荟萃分析，旨在研究血清 miRNA 在 PTC 检测中的整体诊断准确性。检索了截至 2021 年 5 月 1 日的 PubMed、EMBASE 和 Cochrane Library 三个在线数据库。我们系统地回顾了评估血清 miRNA 在诊断 PTC 中的价值的研究，然后总结了接受者操作特征曲线下的面积 (AUROC)、敏感性、特异性、和诊断优势比，以评估血清 miRNA 的准确性，以区分 PTC 患者和良性甲状腺结节患者以及健康对照。我们纳入了来自 6 篇文章的 32 项研究。全面的，PTC患者463例，良性甲状腺结节患者334例，健康对照者104例。结果显示，汇总敏感性和特异性分别为 76%（95% 置信区间 [CI]：68%∼83%）和 86%（95% CI：80%∼91%），汇总 AUROC 为0.89（95% CI：0.86-0.91），当血清 miRNA 用于区分 PTC 患者和良性结节患者时。另一方面，血清 miRNA 区分 PTC 患者和健康对照的总体敏感性和特异性分别为 82%（95% CI：77%∼86%）和 84%（95% CI：76%∼90%），分别，汇总 AUROC 为 0.89（95% CI：0.86-0.92）。我们发现血清 miRNA 对区分 PTC 患者和良性结节患者以及健康对照者具有良好的诊断性能，