BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESurvivin has gradually become an important target in diagnosis, prognosis prediction and treatment of tumor. There are many studies on urine-based survivin mRNA test using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as a noninvasive examination for bladder cancer. However, its clinical value remains controversial. This study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of urine survivin mRNA detection with RT-PCR for bladder cancer by a systematic review of related studies.

METHODSWith the search terms such as bladder neoplasm, survivin, RT-PCR, sensitivity, specificity and diagnosis, we systematically searched through PubMed, EMBASE, SCI, Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese Scientific Journal Full-text Database (CSJD), China Journal Full-text Database (CJFD), Chinese Medical Association (CMA) digital periodicals and Google Scholar totally from January 1997 to April 2009 for diagnostic trials with RT-PCR detection of urine survivin mRNA for bladder cancer. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) items were used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Meta-disc software was used to calculate outcome indicators.

RESULTSTwenty-six studies, totally 2 416 patients, were eligible. Meta-analysis showed that compared with pathologic examination, the summary values of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) of urine-based survivin mRNA test using RT-PCR for bladder cancer were 88%, 94%, 14.56, 0.13 and 0.9736, respectively. Nested RT-PCR got the highest sensitivity, specificity and SROC and the values were 91%, 95% and 0.9805, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of general RT-PCR were the second highest, which were 87% and 94%, respectively. The sensitivity of quantitative RT-PCR was 80% and the specificity was 93%.

CONCLUSIONSComparing with pathologic examination, the sensitivity and specificity of urine-based survivin mRNA test using RT-PCR are relatively high. It can be used as an important adjunct method for cystoscope in early screening and postoperative monitoring of bladder cancer.