MicroRNA-421 is a new potential diagnosis biomarker with higher sensitivity and specificity than carcinoembryonic antigen and cancer antigen 125 in gastric cancer

Abstract

Context: The sensitivity and specificity of blood microRNA-421 (miR-421) as a gastric cancer (GC) biomarker has not been determined.

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of blood miR-421 as GC biomarker.

Materials and methods: miR-421 in serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 90 GC patients and 90 controls was detected by quantitative real-time PCR. The correlation of miR-421 to GC clinicopathological features as well as the diagnostic value of miR-421 comparing to carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) were analyzed.

Results: miR-421 increased significantly in GC patients than in controls. miR-421 in either serum or PBMCs had higher sensitivity and specificity than CEA and CA-125 in GC diagnosis. The GC positive prediction rates of miR-421 were also significantly higher than those of CEA and CA-125.

Discussion and conclusions: miR-421 in serum or PBMCs may be a new potential diagnostic biomarker for GC.

• Cancer antigen 125
• carcinoembryonic antigen
• gastric cancer
• MicroRNA-421
• tumor marker

Acknowledgements

We thank Cancer Institute of Chongqing for providing human gastric cancer tissue samples and Xiangya Medical College for technical assistance.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.

This work was supported by Science and Technology Project of Jiangsu Province in China (No. KS1347).