Systematic Review on Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) DNA in Diagnosis of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in Asian Populations

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the value of EBV DNA in diagnosis of nasopharyngealcancer (NPC) in Asian populations, and provide important evidence for screening.
Methods: Prospective orrespective case-control or cohort studies regarding the detection role of EBV DNA for NPC were included inour study. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Chinese BiomedicalDatabase (CBM database between January 1980 and March 2012.
Results: A total of 18 studies with 1492 NPCcases and 2641 health controls were included. Almost of the included studies were conducted in China, andonly one other conducted in Thailand. The overall results demonstrated that the pooled sensitivity, specificity,positive likelihood (+LR) and negative likelihood (-LR) were 0.73 (0.71-0.75), 0.89 (0.88-0.90), 8.84 (5.65-13.84)and 0.19(0.11-0.32), respectively. The overall EBV DNA detection showed the largest area of 0.932 under thesummary receiver operator curve (SROC). The accuracy of detection by plasma for NPC (0.86) was higherthan in serum (0.81), with largest areas under the SROC of 0.97 and 0.91, respectively.
Conclusion: Our resultsdemonstrated the EBV DNA detection in plasma or serum has high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis ofNPC, especially in Chinese populations with a high risk of cancer.