Diagnosis accuracy of serum Glypican-3 level in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cirrhosis: a meta-analysis

J.-W. Liu, X.-L. Zuo, S. Wang

Department of Rheumatology, Shandong University Affiliated Qilu Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, P.R. China. ljw19640707@163.com

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• Gastroenterology

OBJECTIVE: The diagnostic value of serum GPC3 levels in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver cirrhosis remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic accuracy of serum GPC3 for HCC and liver cirrhosis (LC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic search was performed for the relevant studies. Sensitivity, specificity and other measures regarding the accuracy of serum GPC3 in the diagnosis of HCC were performed by random-effects models. Summary receiver operating characteristic curve (sROC) analysis was taken to summarize GPC3’s performance.

RESULTS: 17 studies were included in our meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and 95 % confidence intervals (95% CIs) for GPC3 were 56% (53%-59%) and 89% (87%-90%) in specificity. The pooled positive LR and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for GPC3 were 7.82 (3.86-15.85) and 0.48 (0.39-0.59) respectively in negative LR. The summary diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and 95% CIs for GPC3 were 26.73 (10.31-69.26), and the area under sROC (AUC) and 95% CIs for GPC3 were 0.8827 (0.8324-0.9330).

CONCLUSIONS: GPC3 is acceptable as a serum marker for the diagnosis of HCC, which can elevate the accuracy of diagnosis.

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