The diagnostic value of monoclonal gastric cancer 7 antigen: a systematic review with meta-analysis

The aim of this study is to explore the clinical characteristic and the diagnostic role of MG7-Ag in detecting gastric cancer (GC) through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Relevant manuscripts aiming at the application of serum MG7-Ag level in GC diagnosis were searched in PubMed, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP, and Wan Fang Data independently, which were published between January 1, 1980 and February 28, 2013. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR+), negative diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR−), diagnostic odds ratio, and the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (AUC) were used to evaluate the value of serum MG7-Ag in diagnosis of GC by using the Meta-DiSc and STATA 11.0 statistical software. 410 manuscripts were retrieved, and 7 manuscripts of high quality including 652 patients were of high quality in this meta-analysis. Overall, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, DLR+, DLR−, and AUC were 0.73 (95 % CI 0.63–0.82), 0.91 (95 % CI 0.84–0.94), 8.59 (95 % CI 5.62–13.11), 0.29 (95 % CI 0.21–0.42), and 0.92 (95 % CI 0.89–0.94), respectively. MG7-Ag is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of GC. However, more studies are needed to confirm the standard criteria.