BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the most common malignant tumor in clinic. The prognosis of advanced patients is poor, and the 5-year survival rate is low. Therefore, early diagnosis becomes the key to improve the prognosis of patients. In recent years, with the development of molecular biology technology, aberrant modification of some driver genes, such as methylation, has become an important method for early diagnosis of lung cancer. The purpose of the present work was to quantitatively evaluate the diagnostic value of abnormal hypermethylation in short state homeobox 2 (SHOX2) promoter region in lung cancer by evidence-based medicine. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Ovid, Web of Science and CNKI for literatures related to the relationship between SHOX2 gene promoter hypermethylation and lung cancer. The data of SHOX2 promoter hymethylation in the original study were extracted. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of SHOX2 promoter methylation were calculated. RESULTS: Finally, 13 publications were included in this meta-analysis, and due to significant statistical heterogeneity among the studies (P<0.05) the data was pooled by random effect model. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of SHOX2 promoter hypermethylation in the diagnosis of lung cancer were 0.75 (95%CI: 0.74-0.77) and 0.89 (95%CI: 0.88-0.91), respectively; The positive likelihood ratio value was 6.75 (4.56-9.99), and the negative predictive value was 0.36 (0.25-0.52); The diagnostic odds ratio was 23.16 (11.34-47.31), and the area under the ROC curve was 0.9. CONCLUSIONS SHOX2 gene promoter hypermethylation is high in serum, broncholavage fluid and pleural effusion of lung cancer patients, which can be used as a biomarker for auxiliary diagnosis of lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the most common malignant tumor and the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Most of the patients have distant metastasis when visiting the doctor, which seriously affects the survival time and quality of life of the patients. With the development of molecular targeted drugs, lung cancer treatment has been transformed from traditional chemotherapy to targeted therapy and precision medicine has been gradually applied in clinical practice, which can make lung cancer patients live longer and have a better quality of life. We present a case of advanced lung cancer patient who presented to Department of Thoracic Surgery of Beijing Haidian Hospital five years ago. We chose the reasonable treatment options though the genetic tests and circulating tumor DNA tests. We summarized the adverse reactions in the whole course of treatment. The comprehensive therapy we utilized, including targeted therapy, chemotherapy, antiangiogenic agents and local radiotherapy, have resulted in our patient with remaining alive. For advanced non-small cell lung cancer with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation positive, individualized treatment was conducted based on precise genotyping and dynamic monitoring, which can not only control the tumor, but also have mild toxic and side effects. The survival time of the patients was prolonged and the quality of life was guaranteed.
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