Biomarkers in laryngeal dysplasia: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Prediction of which laryngeal dysplasia cases will progress to cancer is poorly achieved. The differential expression of biomarkers in dysplastic and cancerous lesions may help to improve this. METHODS We carried out a systematic review of laryngeal dysplasia biomarkers. Risk ratios were calculated for each biomarker. Individual study data were pooled only for the biomarker p53. RESULTS In all, 286 potential studies were identified; 9 met the inclusion criteria with 13 biomarkers assessed. Relative risks ranged from 0.60 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.10, 3.75) for mdm2 to 84.55 (95% CI 5.30, 1348.56) for Cortactin. A meta-analysis of studies using p53 failed to show this biomarker having a significant predictive ability. CONCLUSIONS Currently there is no good evidence for the use of biomarkers in predicting the future behavior of laryngeal dysplastic lesions. Only 3 studies showed statistically significant results. Better reporting of studies using the REMARK (REporting recommendations for tumor MARKer prognostic studies) consensus guidelines should help to improve this in the future.