Diagnostic value of tumor antigens in malignant pleural effusion: a meta-analysis.

The diagnostic value of tumor markers, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen (CA) 15-3, CA 19-9, CA 125, cytokeratin fragment (CYFRA), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in pleural fluid to differentiate between benign and malignant pleural effusion (MPE) has not yet been clearly established. A review of English language studies using human subjects was performed. Sensitivity and specificity values of the chosen tumor markers were pooled using a random effects model to generate hierarchical summary receiver operator curves to determine the diagnostic performance of each tumor marker.