Diagnostic performance of NBI in post-treatment follow up for laryngeal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of narrow-band imaging (NBI) for the post-treatment surveillance of patients with laryngeal cancers and to compare the diagnostic value of NBI with that of white light endoscopy (WLE). METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wanfang Data, and CNKI databases. Study quality and potential bias were assessed by the updated Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool (QUADAS-2). Data analyses were performed with Meta-Disc. Publication bias was assessed by Deek's funnel plot asymmetry test. The protocol used in this article is in accordance with the PRISMA checklist. RESULTS: Seven studies including 628 lesions were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio for the NBI diagnosis of cancerous lesions were 0.92 (95 % CI: 0.84-0.96), 0.94 (95 % CI: 0.91-0.96), and 142.10 (95 % CI: 61.51-328.28), respectively. The area under receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.97. Among the seven studies, three studies evaluated the diagnostic value of WLE, with a sensitivity of 0.53 (95 % CI: 0.38-0.69), a specificity of 0.94 (95 % CI: 0.90-0.97), and a diagnostic odds ratio of 14.75 (95 % CI: 1.72-126.87). The evaluation of heterogeneity, calculated per the diagnostic odds ratio, gave an I2 of 0. No marked publication bias (p = 0.75) was found in our meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: NBI exhibits high diagnostic accuracy in the post-treatment follow-up of laryngeal cancer patients and is superior to that of traditional WLE.