Abstract
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) in evaluating thyroid surgical specimens may facilitate diagnostic and prognostic evaluation, with potential therapeutic implications. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the analytic validity of IHC in detecting BRAFV600E mutations in thyroid cancer (primary or metastatic). We screened citations from three electronic databases (until December 20, 2018), supplemented by a hand search of authors’ files and cross-references of reviews. Citations and full-text papers were independently reviewed in duplicate, and consensus was achieved on inclusion of papers. Two reviewers independently critically appraised and abstracted data from included papers. Random-effect meta-analyses were conducted for sensitivity and specificity estimates. We reviewed 1499 unique citations and 93 full-text articles. We included 1 systematic review and 30 original articles. The published review (from 2015) needed to be updated as there were multiple subsequent original studies. The pooled sensitivity of IHC in detecting a BRAFV600E mutation was 96.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] at 94.1%, 98.3%) (29 studies, including 2659 BRAFV600E mutant tumors). The IHC pooled specificity was 86.3% (95% CI 80.7%, 90.4%) (28 studies, including 1107 BRAFV600E wild-type specimens). These meta-analyses were subject to statistically significant heterogeneity, partly explained by antibody type (sensitivity and specificity) and tissue/tumor type (specificity). In conclusion, BRAF IHC is highly sensitive and reasonably specific in detecting the BRAFV600E mutation; however, there is some variability in analytic performance.
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The authors would like to thank Mrs. Coreen Marino, for assistance in retrieving full-text papers.
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Appendices
Appendix 1 Sample Search Strategy
Database: Ovid MEDLINE: Epub ahead of print, in-process, and other non-indexed citations, Ovid MEDLINE® Daily and Ovid MEDLINE® <1946–Present>
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1
1 exp thyroid neoplasms/
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2
(thyroid adj cancer$).mp.
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3
(thyroid adj carcinoma$).mp.
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4
(thyroid adj neoplasm$).mp.
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5
(thyroid adj adenoma$).mp.
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6
(thyroid adj tumo?r$).mp.
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7
or/1–6
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8
BRAF$.mp.
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9
B-raf$.mp.
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10
“proto-oncogene B-Raf”.mp.
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11
NS7.mp.
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12
“p94”.mp.
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13
“proto-oncogene B-Raf”.mp.
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14
“murine sarcoma viral (v-raf) oncogene homolog B1”.mp.
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15
RAFB1.mp.
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16
“94 kDa B-raf protein”.mp.
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17
“v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B”.mp.
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18
“v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1”.mp.
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19
or/8–18
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20
exp. Immunohistochemistry/
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21
Histocytochemistry/
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22
Biomarkers, Tumor/
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23
“Staining and Labeling”/
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24
immunohistochem$.mp.
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25
histocytochem$.mp.
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26
immunocytochem$.mp.
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27
immunohistocytochem$.mp.
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28
immunostain$.mp.
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29
biomarker$.mp.
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30
histochem$.mp.
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31
marker$.mp.
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32
stain$.mp.
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33
(mark$ adj3 agent$).mp.
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34
(antibod$ adj3 label$).mp.
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35
(immun$ adj3 label$).mp.
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36
immunolabel$.mp.
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37
or/20–36
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38
7 and 19 and 37
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39
exp. animals/not (exp animals/and humans/)
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40
38 not 39
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41
limit 40 to yr=“2005–Current”
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Singarayer, R., Mete, O., Perrier, L. et al. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Diagnostic Performance of BRAF V600E Immunohistochemistry in Thyroid Histopathology. Endocr Pathol 30, 201–218 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12022-019-09585-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12022-019-09585-2