Elevated soluble CD23 level indicates increased risk of B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas: evidence from a meta-analysis

The aim of the present study was to determine whether circulating soluble CD23 (sCD23) was associated with B cells non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (B-NHL). PubMed, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science were extensively searched without language restriction. Data was extracted in a standardized data collection sheet after two reviewers scanned studies independently. The association between sCD23 and NHL was indicated as odds ratio (OR) along with its related 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Meta-analysis was conducted via RevMan 5.3. A total of five studies, which included 964 B-NHL patients and 1243 matched controls without B-NHL, among which 257 were HIV-positive donors and 986 were general controls, were included in our study. Meta-analysis revealed a significant association between peripheral sCD23 level and B-NHL in HIV-positive samples (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.25, 2.20; P = 0.0005) as well as the general population (OR 2.51; 95% CI 1.71, 3.86; P