Non-Cochrane · DTA;prognostic · PM41505877
Expression Analysis, Diagnostic and Prognostic Accuracy of microRNAs in Oral Cancer: An Overview With Meta-Analysis.
Nair Aishwarya Sukumaran, Sujir Nanditha, Sen Divyam, et al. · International dental journal · 2026 · PubMed · doi:10.1016/j.identj.2025.109305
Findings
21 findings
| Population | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Recurrence-free survival Pooled estimate reported by Xie and Wu (miR-21 meta-analysis) | HR 2.04 [1.09, 3.8] GRADE not reported Studies not reported |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Disease-free survival Pooled estimate reported by Xie and Wu (miR-21 meta-analysis) | HR 2.7 [1.08, 6.76] GRADE not reported Studies not reported |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Prognostic effect as log(HR), all endpoints Tissue · Tissue samples (sample type subgroup) | log(HR) 0.85 GRADE not reported 27 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | High or upregulated miRNA expression | Low or non-upregulated miRNA expression | Survival (combined OS, DFS, RFS and CSS hazard ratios) Sensitivity: trim-and-fill corrected | HR 2.31 [1.96, 2.73] GRADE not reported 7 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | High or upregulated miRNA expression | Low or non-upregulated miRNA expression | Survival (combined OS, DFS, RFS and CSS hazard ratios) | HR 2.31 [1.96, 2.73] GRADE not reported 7 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | High or upregulated miRNA expression | Low or non-upregulated miRNA expression | Overall survival (OS) Source review: Xie et al (miR-21), all studies | HR 1.71 [1.20, 2.44] GRADE not reported 9 studies · 777 participants |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | High or upregulated miRNA expression | Low or non-upregulated miRNA expression | Overall survival (OS) Source review: Troiano et al (tissue miRNAs) | HR 2.65 [2.07, 3.39] GRADE not reported 15 studies · 1200 participants |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Cancer-specific survival Pooled estimate reported by Xie and Wu (miR-21 meta-analysis) | HR 2.63 [1.25, 5.51] GRADE not reported Studies not reported |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | High or upregulated miRNA expression | Low or non-upregulated miRNA expression | Disease-free survival (DFS) Source review: Troiano et al (tissue miRNAs) | HR 1.95 [1.28, 2.98] GRADE not reported 15 studies · 1200 participants |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Overall survival Pooled estimate reported by Xie and Wu (miR-21 meta-analysis; fixed-effects after sensitivity analysis) | HR 1.93 [1.44, 2.59] GRADE not reported Studies not reported |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (oral cancer) | Upregulated (high) miRNA expression | Low or no miRNA upregulation | Cancer-specific survival | HR 2.02 [1.57, 2.6] GRADE not reported 4 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and controls | miRNA or miRNA panel as index test | Patients without oral cancer (controls) | Diagnostic accuracy (area under the ROC curve, AUC) Initial analysis: entries with reported CIs | AUC 0.816 [0.721, 0.884] GRADE not reported 6 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus healthy controls | miRNA or miRNA panel as index test | Reference diagnosis (OSCC versus no OSCC) | Diagnostic accuracy: area under the ROC curve All 12 entries (reported CIs plus SE approximated from sample size) | AUC 0.787 [0.721, 0.841] GRADE not reported 12 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus controls | miRNA expression in OSCC | Healthy or non-OSCC control samples | Differential miRNA expression (all entries) | SMD -0.05 [-0.19, 0.09] GRADE not reported 11 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus controls | miRNA expression in OSCC | Healthy or non-OSCC control samples | Differential miRNA expression Serum · Serum samples (sample type subgroup) | SMD 0.69 GRADE not reported 2 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus controls | miRNA expression in OSCC | Healthy or non-OSCC control samples | Differential miRNA expression Upregulated miRNAs | SMD 0.29 [0.11, 0.47] GRADE not reported 6 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus controls | miRNA expression in OSCC | Healthy or non-OSCC control samples | Differential miRNA expression Downregulated miRNAs | SMD -0.52 [-0.73, -0.31] GRADE not reported 5 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma versus controls | miRNA expression in OSCC | Healthy or non-OSCC control samples | Differential miRNA expression Saliva · Saliva samples (sample type subgroup) | SMD -0.81 GRADE not reported 3 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma | miRNA expression in lymph node metastasis positive OSCC | miRNA expression in lymph node metastasis negative OSCC | Differential miRNA expression by lymph node metastasis Tissue · Tissue samples (sample type subgroup, metastatic versus nonmetastatic) | SMD 0.02 GRADE not reported 6 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) | miRNA expression in OSCC with lymph node metastasis | OSCC without lymph node metastasis | miRNA expression (standardized mean difference) Source review: Jadhav et al, miR-21 studies only | SMD 0.45 [-0.19, 1.09] GRADE not reported 3 studies |
| Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma | miRNA expression in lymph node metastasis positive OSCC | miRNA expression in lymph node metastasis negative OSCC | Differential miRNA expression by lymph node metastasis Pooled estimate reported by Jadhav et al (322 LNM positive, 389 LNM negative) | SMD 0.13 [-0.35, 0.62] GRADE not reported 8 studies · 711 participants |
Included primary studies 14
Open in Studies| Study | Year | Also included by | Outcomes it informs here | Trial data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balakittnen 2024 A novel saliva-based miRNA profile to diagnose and predict oral cancer DOI:10.1038/s41368-023-00273-w | 2024 | 2 other reviews | not stated | not extracted yet |
| Bahrami 2024 Biomarkers for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (miR-24, miR-200, and miR-34): Screening and Detection MicroRNA DOI:10.31557/apjcp.2024.25.7.2265 | 2024 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Jadhav 2020 miRNA for the assessment of lymph node metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma: Systematic review and metanalysis DOI:10.1111/jop.13134 | 2021 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression by lymph node metastasis | not extracted yet |
| Jia 2014 miR-34a Inhibits Migration and Invasion of Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma via Targeting MMP9 and MMP14 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0108435 | 2014 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Jin 2019 Dysregulation of MiR-519d Affects Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Invasion and Metastasis by Targeting MMP3. PMID:31258780 | 2019 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Li 2009 MiR-21 Indicates Poor Prognosis in Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinomas as an Apoptosis Inhibitor DOI:10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-08-3053 | 2009 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Mahmood 2019 Circulating miR-21 as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma DOI:10.12669/pjms.35.5.331 | 2019 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Maruyama 2018 MicroRNA-196a-5p is a potential prognostic marker of delayed lymph node metastasis in early-stage tongue squamous cell carcinoma. PMID:29434944 | 2018 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Piao 2023 A circulating microRNA panel as a novel dynamic monitor for oral squamous cell carcinoma DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-28550-y | 2023 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet |
| Stojkovic 2023 Meta‐signature guided investigation of miRNA candidates as potential biomarkers of oral cancer DOI:10.1111/odi.14185 | 2022 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet |
| Sun 2018 Expression of MiRNA-137 in oral squamous cell carcinoma and its clinical significance. PMID:29552778 | 2018 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet |
| Troiano 2018 Predictive Prognostic Value of Tissue-Based MicroRNA Expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis DOI:10.1177/0022034518762090 | 2018 | this review only | Overall survival | not extracted yet |
| Yap 2019 Non-invasive screening of a microRNA-based dysregulation signature in oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders DOI:10.1016/j.oraloncology.2019.07.013 | 2019 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
| Zhang 2020 miR‐30e‐5p represses angiogenesis and metastasis by directly targeting AEG‐1 in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck DOI:10.1111/cas.14259 | 2019 | this review only | Differential miRNA expression | not extracted yet |
Overlap with other reviews
Reviews that include the same primary studies are not independent evidence. Shared counts match studies by PMID, DOI or NCT, and otherwise by author and year (a probable match). Only the non-Cochrane dental reviews have study lists, so overlap with Cochrane reviews is not counted yet.
Review question
| Element | Planned (methods) | Found (results) |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Human patients diagnosed with oral cancer including OSCC, with comparison to healthy controls | Patients with OSCC (7 included publications: 3 systematic reviews/meta-analyses and 4 original studies) |
| Intervention | miRNA expression or activity as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker | miRNAs and miRNA panels (e.g. miR-21, miR-24, miR-200, miR-34, miR-135b-5p, miR-18a-5p, miR-30a-5p); tissue, serum and saliva samples |
| Comparison | Patients without oral cancer (healthy controls) | Healthy controls or non-metastatic OSCC; low miRNA expression for prognostic HRs |
| Outcomes | Diagnostic accuracy (AUC), prognostic hazard ratios for survival, differential miRNA expression (SMD) | Prognostic HR 2.31 (7 entries); CSS HR 2.02 (4 entries); diagnostic AUC 0.787 (12 entries); expression SMD -0.05 (11 entries) |
| Study designs | Systematic reviews and meta-analyses plus original research studies | 3 systematic reviews/meta-analyses and 4 original studies (case-control, tissue, serum or saliva based) |
| Timing | Published in English within the last 15 years; searches 2021 to 2025 for original studies | Not specified |