Objective This study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in ovarian cancer.

Methods A systematic review of related studies was performed; sensitivity, specificity, and other measures about the accuracy of serum LPA in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer were pooled using random-effects models. Summary receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to summarize the overall test performance.

Results Six studies involving 363 patients with ovarian cancer and 273 healthy control women met the inclusion criteria. The summary estimates for LPA in diagnosing ovarian cancer in the included studies were as follows: sensitivity, 0.94 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.91–0.96]; specificity, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.83–0.91); and diagnostic odds ratio, 141.59 (95% CI, 52.1–384.63). The area under the curve and Q value for summary receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.97 and 0.92, respectively.

Conclusions The LPA assay showed high accuracy and sensitivity for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. The present study was limited by the small number of available studies and sample size; therefore, additional studies with a better design and larger samples are needed to further assess the diagnostic accuracy of LPA.