Panel of 5 serum microRNAs could lead to accurate, early diagnosis of NSCLC in ethnically diverse patients

Panel of 5 serum microRNAs could lead to accurate, early diagnosis of NSCLC in ethnically diverse patients

Early-stage Non-small-cell Lung Cancer is asymptomatic and difficult to detect since no blood test for NSCLC is currently available. In a new study, researchers identified a panel of five serum microRNAs as the potential biomarker for NSCLC diagnosis.

MiRNAs are a family of small, single-stranded non-coding RNAs that are critical regulators of numerous diseases, and their expression patterns have the potential to diagnose various types of cancer. This is the first multiethnic, multicentric, single-blind global analysis of miRNA expression patterns of NSCLC patients in four independent cohorts from five centers in both China and America. The group recruited 438 participants including 221 NSCLC patients, 161 controls and 56 benign nodules from both China and America. They used a high-throughput TaqMan Low-Density Array scanning combined with an individual quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction PCR confirmation and successfully identified a panel of 5 serum miRNAs including miR-483-5p, miR-193a-3p, miR-25, miR-214 and miR-7 that were significantly elevated in NSCLC patients using samples from 3 independent Chinese cohorts. Subsequently, a blind trial was then performed to assess the ability of the panel to diagnose NSCLC in an American cohort and to function as a reliable diagnostic indicator of NSCLC in patients of different ethnicities.

The panel can differentiate malignant lesions from early stages of the cancer even in the benign nodules that are frequently found by CT scans in high-risk populations, which provide the potential for early interventions, therapy and treatment options and expand upon the results of previous studies of circulating-miRNA signatures in patients with NSCLC. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/nuso-ndt081415.php

The term non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) refers to every lung cancer different from small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). These tumors account for approximately 80% of all lung cancers. The incidence of NSCLC in Europe is about 47 new cases per year per 100,000 inhabitants.