Diagnostic performance of blood-based liquid biopsies in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive cancer associated with poor prognosis. Early diagnosis is crucial to improve its prognosis. Blood-based liquid biopsies are promising methods in detecting HCC. However, their accuracies have not been systematically assessed, so it is essential to conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic performance of blood-based liquid biopsies in detecting HCC. Methods: We will search PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Medline, China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) for the relevant studies that assessed the diagnostic performance of blood-based liquid biopsies including circulating tumor cells(CTCs), circulating tumor DNA(ctDNA), and exosomes(EVs) in HCC patients from inception to September 2020. Two researchers will independently extract the data and use Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) to evaluate the quality of included literature. We will also conduct the pool diagnostic value, heterogeneity across studies and reporting bias. All the statistical analysis will be conducted by Stata V.15.0 and Meta-disc V.1.4. Results: This review will evaluate the pooled diagnostic value of blood-based liquid biopsies in HCC. Conclusion: This review will summarize the current published evidence of blood-based liquid biopsies in diagnosing HCC, which may provide a great opportunity for promotion and application of them. Open Science Framework(OSF) registration number: September 3, 2020. https://osf.io/9n4yz .

Mechanism of Action of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in the Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Treatment and Bone Repair and Regeneration

“…Additionally, osteoarthritis is a common disease of progressive destruction of articular cartilage, accompanied by increased pain, currently lacking effective drugs targeting cartilage repair and regeneration (Li et al, 2013). MSC-Exos are effective at promoting bone repair and regeneration independently, and play an immunomodulatory role by binding with receptors to promote osteogenesis (Zhang et al, 2020b;Fan et al, 2021). Current research suggests that MSC-Exos can promote osteogenic differentiation and angiogenesis, regulate immune function, induce chondrogenesis and improve osteoporosis (Lu et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2021).…”

“…Macrophages as immune cells play a crucial role in bone regeneration, secreting inflammatory and chemotactic mediators, and initiating the recruitment of MSCs (Loi et al, 2016). MSC-Exos possess a sustained inflammation-regulatory ability, which could decrease the gene expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and suppress the expression of an M1 phenotypic marker (iNOS) mRNA in the inflammatory macrophages (Wei et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020b). The scanning electronic microscopy results depicted that the morphology of macrophages was significantly elongated after treatment with BMSC-Exos.…”

Musculoskeletal ultrasound for ankylosing spondylitis

“…If I 2 > 50%, the heterogeneity across studies was significant, and a random-effects model was used in the meta-analysis; otherwise, a fixed-effects model was used. [ 23 ] Numerical values for pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR), negative LR, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were obtained from FN, FP, TN, and TP. These were presented alongside graphical representations, wherein the horizontal lines showed the confidence intervals (CIs).…”

“…Heterogeneity was indicated by I 2 , where 0% means no heterogeneity and 100% means the strongest heterogeneity. If I 2 > 50%, the heterogeneity across studies was significant, and a random-effects model was used in the meta-analysis; otherwise, a fixed-effects model was used [23] . Numerical values for pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR), negative LR, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were obtained from FN, FP, TN, and TP.…”

Genomic Landscape of Liquid Biopsy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Personalized Medicine

“…Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses showed that genomic profiling of liquid biopsy is a promising strategy in the identification of individual mutational patterns of HCC patients. However, the examination of liquid biopsy has relatively low sensitivity and high specificity in the early detection of HCC and there is a risk of bias (24)(25)(26). Therefore, accurate phenotyping and genotyping of liquid biopsy are of crucial importance.…”