Diagnostic accuracy of Golgi protein 73 in primary hepatic carcinoma using ELISA: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) is currently one of the most common worldwide causes of cancer death. Golgi protein 73 (GP73) has been proposed as potential diagnostic marker. However, it is controversial because of inconsistent diagnostic accuracy in different studies. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of GP73 for PHC. All the studies relating to the diagnostic accuracy of GP73 for patients with PHC from 1978 to January 2013 were collected. Methodological quality was assessed by Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2). The overall diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of GP73 using Meta-DiSc statistical software. Altogether 5,637 subjects were included in the 25 selected studies. The sensitivity and specificity (95% confidence interval) of GP73 was 0.75 (0.73-0.76) and 0.84 (0.83 - 0.86), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and Q* index of GP73 was 0.8616 and 0.8021. Serum GP73 has a relatively high diagnostic accuracy in primary hepatic carcinoma with better sensitivity and high specificity than AFP.