The diagnostic value of DNA hypermethylation in stool for colorectal cancer: A meta-analysis

Objective: We performed this meta-analysis to document the diagnostic performance of DNA hypermethylation in stool for colorectal cancer (CRC). Materials and Methods: Relevant studies that reported the diagnostic performance of stool DNA hypermethylation in CRC and healthy control were searched and extracted from electronic databases. After careful evaluation of the included articles, the numbers of true positive, false positive, false negative and true negative cases identified by stool DNA hypermethylation were extracted and pooled for diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likely hood ratio, negative likely hood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio and the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. All the statistical analysis was done by MetaDiSc1.4 and STATA-11.0 software. Results: Thirty diagnostic trails including 1,629 CRC patients and 1,531 controls were included in this meta-analysis according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The overall diagnostic value of DNA hypermethylation in stool for CRC was: Pooled sensitivity, 0.71 (0.69-0.73); pooled specificity, 0.92 (0.90-0.93); pooled positive likely hood ratio, 7.59 (5.83-9389); pooled negative likely hood ratio, 0.33 (0.27-0.42); pooled diagnostic odds ratio, 27.78 (19.94-38.72) and area under the SROC curve was 0.93 (0.91-0.95). Conclusion: These results indicate a great diagnostic potential for DNA hypermethylation as a reliable marker in stool for CRC.