Exosomal miR-1246 in body fluids is a potential biomarker for gastrointestinal cancer.

AIM: The aim was to systematically evaluate whether exosomal miRNAs could be regarded as potential minimally invasive biomarkers of diagnosis for gastrointestinal cancer. METHODS: A systematic review and meta analysis of exosomal miRNA expression in gastrointestinal cancer were performed. RESULTS: A total of 370 articles were retrieved from PubMed and EMBASE. The summary receiver operating characteristic curves of three miRNAs (miR-21, miR-1246 and miR-4644) were drawn, miR-21, miR-1246 and miR-4644 exhibited sensitivities of 0.66, 0.920 and 0.750, respectively; specificities were 0.87, 0.958 and 0.769, respectively; and areas under the curve for discriminating gastrointestinal cancer patients from control subjects were 0.876, 0.969 and 0.827, respectively. CONCLUSION: Exosome miR-1246 had the highest level of diagnostic efficiency, which indicated that miR-1246 could be a biomarker.