A meta-analysis survey of appropriate bone turnover markers in the detection of bone metastasis in lung cancer

A number of studies have investigated the clinical significance of bone turnover markers (BTMs) for the diagnosis of bone metastasis (BM) in lung cancer; however, they led to contradictory results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate whether BTMs differ between lung cancer patients with and without BM.

Articles were identified by searching Medline, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus. The studies that were identified were pooled and the weighted mean difference (WMD) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Subgroup analyses and publication bias detection were also conducted.

A final analysis of 1720 subjects (707 patients with BM and 1013 patients without BM) was performed from 16 cohort studies. From the pooled data in the meta-analysis, the total alkaline phosphatase (TALP) (104.35 U/l [95% CI 33.36−175.34]), bone-specific ALP (BALP) (13.24 μg/l [95% CI 8.50−17.98] or 6.84 U/l [95% CI 2.98−10.70]), C-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP) (5.07 μg/l [95% CI 3.58−6.56]) and N-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) (5.08 nM bone collagen equivalent/l [95% CI 2.82−7.33]) were significantly lower among BM patients than non-BM patients. Subgroup analyses detected that the serum level of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase isoform 5b was significantly reduced in Caucasian patients with BM (−0.64 U/l [95% CI −1.02 to −0.25]), while increased in Asian patients with BM (2.69 U/l [95% CI 0.08−5.31]), compared to patients without BM.

The present meta-analysis suggested that serum measurement of TALP, BALP, ICTP and NTX might be helpful in detecting BM in lung cancer.