Diagnostic role of circulating YKL-40 in endometrial carcinoma patients: a meta-analysis of seven related studies

In the past decade, several studies have suggested a possible link between circulating YKL-40 levels and endometrial carcinoma (EC), but have arrived at inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted the present meta-analysis and aim to disclose a more comprehensive evaluation of the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of YKL-40 in EC. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Science Direct, SpringerLink, EBSCO, Wanfang, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases for studies that evaluated the diagnostic value of YKL-40 in endometrial cancer. The STATA software 12.0 and Meta-Disc software were used to test the heterogeneity and to evaluate the overall test performance. A total of seven studies including 234 EC cases and 300 controls were included in our meta-analysis. The summary estimates of YKL-40 for EC diagnosis indicated a moderately high diagnostic accuracy for circulating YKL-40, with a sensitivity of 0.74, a specificity of 0.87, a PLR of 5.74, a NLR of 0.30, a DOR of 19.14, and an AUC of 0.80. On the basis of our meta-analysis, therefore, circulating YKL-40 could be promising and meaningful in the diagnosis of EC.