ArticleTranslational cancer research2025
Diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid carbohydrate antigen 72-4 for malignant pleural effusion: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Translational cancer research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Carbohydrate antigen 72-4 and tumor-associated glycoprotein 72 - tumor marker: Past, present and future.World journal of gastrointestinal pathophysiology · 2026Review
- Diagnostic value of pleural fluid carbohydrate antigen 242 for malignant pleural effusion.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
- Pleural fluid human epididymis secretory protein 4 in differentiating between malignant and benign pleural effusions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Several studies have evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4) for malignant pleural effusion (MPE), but the results were diverse. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid CA72-4 for MPE. Methods: The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched to verify potential studies investigating the diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid CA72-4 for MPE. The last search date was August 2024. The quality of the eligible studies was assessed by this study using the revised diagnostic accuracy study quality assessment tool-2 to assess the quality of the eligible studies. This study used a summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curve and a bivariate model to pool the findings and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of available studies. Results: Eight studies with 828 cases of MPEs and 963 cases of benign pleural effusion (BPE) were included in the present meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity (95% CI) and specificity (95% CI) were 0.47 (0.39-0.55) and 0.98 (0.95-0.99). The area under sROC curves was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.73-0.80). The primary design weaknesses of the included studies were the representativeness of the participants and the data-driven threshold to define positive CA72-4. A significant publication bias was observed across the eligible studies. Conclusions: Pleural fluid CA72-4 is an auxiliary diagnostic marker for MPE. However, its diagnostic accuracy may be overestimated by available studies.
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