Diagnostic accuracy of K-ras mutation for pancreatic carcinoma: a meta-analysis

BackgroundThe conventional tests for the diagnosis of early stage pancreatic carcinoma are not acceptable. This meta-analysis is to evaluate the accuracy of K-ras mutation for the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma.Data SourcesA systemic search of all relevant literature was performed in Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Database, and MEDLINE (PubMed as the search engine) prior to June 1, 2011. Thirty-four studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and data were pooled for analysis.ResultsThe pooled estimates for K-ras mutation in diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma were as follows: sensitivity 0.68 (95% CI: 0.66–0.71), specificity 0.87 (95% CI: 0.85–0.88), positive likelihood ratio 4.54 (95% CI: 3.47–5.94), negative likelihood ratio 0.37 (95% CI: 0.30–0.44) and diagnostic odds ratio 14.90 (95% CI: 10.02–22.15). Summary receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that the maximum joint sensitivity and specificity was 0.79, and the overall area under the curve was 0.86.ConclusionsDiagnostic accuracy of K-ras mutation was not superior to that of conventional tests. Therefore, K-ras mutation analysis alone is not recommended for the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma.