Head and neck cancer biomarkers: Systematic review and meta-analysis

To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic capabilities of various biological markers in the plasma, serum, tissue, and saliva of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). We performed manual and digital searches using specific keywords and found English-language literature published up to October 28, 2022. PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, MEDLINE Complete, and EMBASE databases were used. Studies comparing biomarkers for the diagnosis of HNC versus healthy controls were evaluated. Seventeen studies using varied sources of biomarkers, both individually and combined, were identified. The sensitivity and specificity of biomarkers ranged from 29.5% to 100% and 57.1% to 100%, respectively. The combined biomarkers demonstrated higher therapeutic applicability in terms of sensitivity and specificity than the individual biomarkers. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of the sensitivity/specificity for individual and combined biomarker was 534.45/1.66 and 247.41/14.62, respectively. Combined biomarkers may aid in the diagnosis of HNC. Further studies are required to verify the accuracy of these biomarkers.