The Accuracy of Ultrasound-guided Fine-needle Aspiration and Core Needle Biopsy in Diagnosing Axillary Lymph Nodes in Women With Breast Cancer: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: This study performed an overall assessment of the accuracy of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and core needle biopsy (CNB) for detecting axillary lymph nodes in women with breast cancer based on qualified studies.Methods: Eligible studies and pertinent literature resources were identified on Cochrane, PubMed, Embase, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang databases through searching key words or terms. The latest study was published in the March 2020. The eligible publications contained cohort and cross-sectional researches. All the publications obtained were tested for heterogeneity, and corresponding effect models were used to calculate amalgamative values of sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR). Analysis of summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) was performed on suspicious axillary lymph nodes.Results: A total of 22 studies involving 3548 patients were included to explore the accuracy of FNA in identifying axillary lymph nodes in women with breast cancer. 11 studies involving 758 patients were included to explore the accuracy of CNB in identifying axillary lymph nodes in women with breast cancer. The accuracy of FNA in identifying suspicious axillary lymph nodes was specifically as follows: overall sensitivity was 79% (95%CI: 73%-84%), global specificity was 96% (95%CI: 92%-98%), overall positive likelihood ratio was 18.55 (95% CI: 10.53-32.69), overall negative likelihood ratio was 0.22 (95% CI: 0.17-0.28), the overall DOR was 71.68 (95%CI: 37.19-138.12), and the acreage under the SROC was (AUC = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.92-0.96). The accuracy of CNB in identifying suspicious axillary lymph nodes was specifically as follows: overall sensitivity was 85% (95%CI: 81%-89%), global specificity was 93% (95%CI: 87%-96%), overall positive likelihood ratio was 11.88 (95% CI: 6.56-21.50), overall negative likelihood ratio was 0.16 (95% CI: 0.12-0.21), the overall DOR was 66.83 (95%CI: 33.28-134.21), and the acreage under the SROC was (AUC = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.94-0.97).Conclusions: The results indicated that both FNA and CNB had high accuracy for suspicious axillary lymph nodes.