Clinical potential role of circulating microRNAs in early diagnosis of colorectal cancer patients

Abstract

Current procedures for diagnosis and biomarker examination of colorectal cancer (CRC) are invasive and unpleasant. There is a great need to identify sensitive and specific biomarkers for early diagnosis of CRC. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising molecular markers for CRC prediction. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to integrate an evaluation index for diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNAs in diagnosing CRC patients. Furthermore, we conducted an independent validation set of 49 CRC patients and 49 healthy controls. In our meta-analysis, we found that miR-21 yielded a pooled area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.867 (sensitivity: 76%, specificity: 82%) in discriminating CRC from controls, and miR-92a yielded a summary AUC of 0.803 (sensitivity: 77%, specificity: 68%); miR-21 had a higher diagnostic efficiency than miR-92a. In the further validation, plasma miR-21 levels in CRC patients were significantly higher than levels observed in healthy subjects. A ROC curve analysis showed a consistent result. However, this phenotype was not present in miR-92a. Moreover, the expression trend of miR-21 in plasma samples was in line with that of tissue samples, along with the cellular level. Current evidences suggest that plasma miR-21 could be a reliable and non-invasive biomarker for CRC diagnosis. Studies with larger cohorts that include the diagnostic value of plasma miR-21 for CRC are warranted.

EZH2 inhibition promotes methyl jasmonate‑induced apoptosis of human colorectal cancer through the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway

“…The morbidity rate of colorectal cancer is gradually rising and its malignant biological behavior is closely associated with a small group of tumor stem cells (19). Early-stage diagnosis of colorectal cancer can be missed and in later stages, distant metastasis may occur, together resulting in a poor patient prognosis (20). Therefore, investigations into the molecular mechanism of the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer can aid the prophylaxis and treatment of colorectal tumor types.…”

Circulating Exosomal MicroRNA-21 as a Biomarker in Each Tumor Stage of Colorectal Cancer

“…Many researchers have reported on the potential of circulating plasma/serum miRNA as a diagnostic biomarker for CRC patients using various kinds of miRNA [9,10,20,21]. In this study, firstly, we clarified the microarray-based miRNA expression profiles of exosomes separated from the plasma of CRC patients.…”

“…Recently, several papers have reported the usefulness of plasma/serum miR-21 levels as a biomarker for diagnosis in CRC patients [23,24,25,26,27,28]. However, the clinical significance of plasma/serum miRNA as a biomarker for diagnosis is still controversial, and some papers have indicated that serological miR-21 does not have any impact on diagnosis in CRC patients [29,30].…”

“…Recent evidence indicates that these miRNAs have been identified in plasma and serum (plasma/serum) and are important as noninvasive liquid biomarkers for cancer patients [7,8]. Several papers have reported the diagnostic and prognostic value of circulating miRNAs from plasma/serum in CRC patients [9,10]. …”

Circulating microRNAs: novel biomarkers for early detection of colorectal cancer

“…16 A number of studies have also reported the presence of miRNAs in high concentrations in body fluids and stool of patients with CRC. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] These miRNAs could potentially act as novel biomarkers for noninvasive diagnosis of CRC. Most of these miRNAs were identified using standard methods of microarray and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) approaches.…”