The diagnostic value of CEA for lung cancer-related malignant pleural effusion in China: a meta-analysis

To accurately evaluate the diagnostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) for malignant pleural effusion associated with lung cancer in the Chinese population.
Three English databases, PubMed, Embase and Web of Science, and two Chinese databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang Data, up to 5 November 2020, were searched. The literature on the diagnosis of lung cancer-related malignant pleural effusion by CEA in the Chinese population were collected. The data was analyzed by Stata15.0 software.
A total of 15 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The combined sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.74–0.84), 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89–0.95), 10.46 (95% CI: 7.29–15.00), 0.22 (95% CI: 0.17–0.28), 47.26 (95% CI: 28.84–77.44), respectively . The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.91–0.95). No significant publication bias was found (P > 0.05)
CEA has anexcellent diagnostic value for patients with lung cancer-related malignant pleural effusion in the Chinese population.