The diagnostic accuracy of digital PCR, ARMS and NGS for detecting KRAS mutation in cell-free DNA of patients with colorectal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

<h4>Introduction</h4>Before anti-EGFR therapy is given to patients with colorectal cancer, it is required to determine KRAS mutation status in tumor. When tumor tissue is not available, cell-free DNA (liquid biopsy) is commonly used as an alternative. Due to the low abundance of tumor-de...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Peng Ye, Peiling Cai, Jing Xie, Yuanyuan Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248775
Description
Summary:<h4>Introduction</h4>Before anti-EGFR therapy is given to patients with colorectal cancer, it is required to determine KRAS mutation status in tumor. When tumor tissue is not available, cell-free DNA (liquid biopsy) is commonly used as an alternative. Due to the low abundance of tumor-derived DNA in cell-free DNA samples, methods with high sensitivity were preferred, including digital polymerase chain reaction, amplification refractory mutation system and next-generation sequencing. The aim of this systemic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the accuracy of those methods in detecting KRAS mutation in cell-free DNA sample from patients with colorectal cancer.<h4>Methods</h4>Literature search was performed in Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Library. After removing duplicates from the 170 publications found by literature search, eligible studies were identified using pre-defined criteria. Quality of the publications and relevant data were assessed and extracted thereafter. Meta-DiSc and STATA softwares were used to pool the accuracy parameters from the extracted data.<h4>Results</h4>A total of 33 eligible studies were identified for this systemic review and meta-analysis. After pooling, the overall sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.77 (95%CI: 0.74-0.79), 0.87 (95%CI: 0.85-0.89), and 23.96 (95%CI: 13.72-41.84), respectively. The overall positive and negative likelihood ratios were 5.55 (95%CI: 3.76-8.19) and 0.29 (95%CI: 0.21-0.38), respectively. Area under curve of the summarized ROC curve was 0.8992.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Digital polymerase chain reaction, amplification refractory mutation system, and next-generation sequencing had overall high accuracy in detecting KRAS mutation in cell-free DNA sample. Large prospective randomized clinical trials are needed to further convince the accuracy and usefulness of KRAS mutation detection using cfDNA/liquid biopsy samples in clinical practice.<h4>Trial registration</h4>PROSPERO CRD42020176682; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=176682.
ISSN:1932-6203