Value of serum CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4 detection in opportunistic screening for gastric cancer: a meta-analysis / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the application value of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 and CA72-4 detection in the opportunistic screening (healthy physical examination) of gastric cancer based on a meta-analysis.Methods:A published literature searching up to May 2023 was performed in databases of CNKI, Wanfang Databases, VIP, PubMed, Cochran and Embase for studies on CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4 detection and diagnosis of gastric cancer. The Quality Evaluation Tool of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) was used to evaluate the quality of the literature. Stata17.0 statistical software was used for meta-analysis.Results:According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 23 studies with 5 287 gastric cancer patients and 6 129 controls were included. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of serum CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4 as a diagnostic marker for gastric cancer were 0.42, 0.45 and 0.52, and 0.94, 0.91 and 0.95, respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curve for discriminating gastric cancer was 0.82, 0.77 and 0.87, respectively. The sensitivity of combined (parallel) diagnosis of gastric cancer with the three biomarkers increased to 0.66 (95% CI: 0.54-0.76), the specificity decreased to 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81-0.89), and the area under the curve basically remained unchanged at 0.86 (95% CI: 0.83-0.89). Conclusions:Due to poor sensitivity, the application effects of serum CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4 as biomarkers for gastric cancer screening and physical examination are limited.