A three-miRNA signature as promising non-invasive diagnostic marker for gastric cancer

Abstract

Background

Despite the declining incidence of gastric cancer, mortality rate remains high due to late presentation. We aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of miRNA as a diagnostic marker for gastric cancer in the circulation.

Methods

Plasma samples from 3 independent groups comprise 123 gastric cancer patients and 111 healthy controls for miRNA profiling from microarray screening.

Results

Microarray data showed that 25 miRNAs were upregulated in gastric cancer patients and 6 highly expressed miRNAs (miR-18a, miR-140-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-627, miR-629 and miR-652) were selected for validation. In an independent validation set, levels of miR-627, miR-629 and miR-652 were significantly higher in gastric cancer patients than healthy controls (P <0.0001). An algorithm with improved sensitivity and specificity as gastric cancer classifier was adopted and validated in another random set of 15 plasma samples. Results showed that combination of 3 miRNAs obtained the highest area under curve, with a cut-off at 0.373, with a sensitivity of 86.7 % and a specificity of 85.5 %.

Conclusion

This study revealed a three-miRNA signature as a promising classifier for gastric cancer, and greatly enhances the feasibility of circulating miRNAs as non-invasive diagnostic marker for this disease.