Evidence Hub

Label-Free Electrochemical Biosensors for Early Detection of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of miRNA (miR-21, miR-155) and Exosome-Based Platforms

M. L., R. Upadhyay, D. B.

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, 2026

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women in the world and early diagnosis of cancer is the most important predictor of long-term survival. While currently popular screening tests such as mammograms and confirmatory tissue biopsies have drawbacks such as invasiveness, expense and less sensitivity in dense breast tissue, there has been a growing interest in minimally invasive molecular liquid-biopsy biomarkers. Among the analytes, miRNAs (in particular miR-21 and miR-155) and tumour derived exosomes are promising analytes because of their tight mechanistic relation to the oncosignalling pathways and/or their stability in biofluids. Alternatively, using a label free electrochemical biosensor in which the change of electron transfer at the interfaces is detected by the addition of the target molecule, can also be rapid, cost efficient and very sensitive for a fluorescence or enzyme linked assay. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the label-free electrochemical biosensing platforms used to detect miR-21, miR-155 and exosomes in the context of breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis are presented for the period 2021-2026. According to PRISMA guidelines, twenty primary studies were found from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science and were assessed for their sensor architecture and nanomaterial transducer, recognition element, limit of detection, linear dynamic range and clinical validation. The pooled estimates from the eleven diagnostic accuracy studies…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free