Serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase as a biomarker for osseous metastases in patients with malignant carcinomas: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: Journal of cancer research and therapeutics Vol. 10; no. 7; p. 140
• Main Authors: Du, Wen-Xi, Duan, Shu-Fang, Chen, Jun-Jie, Huang, Jie-Feng, Yin, Li-Ming, Tong, Pei-Jian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd 01.11.2014
• Subjects: Alkaline phosphatase; Alkaline Phosphatase - blood; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; Bone and Bones - pathology; Bone Neoplasms - blood; Bone Neoplasms - diagnosis; Bone Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer; Carcinoma; Carcinoma - blood; Carcinoma - pathology; Case-Control Studies; Diagnosis; Health aspects; Humans; Metastasis; Neoplasm Metastasis - diagnosis; Neoplasm Metastasis - pathology; Physiological aspects; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 0973-1482; 1998-4138; 1998-4138
• DOI: 10.4103/0973-1482.145842

Bone metastasis was common in patients with malignant tumors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (B-ALP) as a biomarker in the diagnosis of osseous metastases in patients with cancers. We searched the databases of Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Medline, CNKI and Wanfang to screen the relevant articles about the serum B-ALP detection in the diagnosis of osseous metastases in patients with malignant carcinomas. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve were calculated by STATA12.0 software. Nineteen trials with 3 268 subjects were finally included in this study. The mean level of serum B-ALP was 41.50 ± 26.61 μg/L (216.90 ± 139.00U/L) in patients with osseous metastases and 14.49 ± 5.52 μg/L (103.30 ± 39.44 U/L) in patients without osseous metastases. The serum level of B-ALP was significant higher in the osseous metastases group than that in the control group (P < 0.05); The pooled sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of osseous metastases were 0.74 with its 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of 0.62-0.83 and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.67-0.89), respectively. The area under the SRCO was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.83-0.89). Serum B-ALP can be a promising biomarker for detection of osseous metastases in patients with cancers.