Clinical significance of serum miR-25 in non-small-cell lung cancer

ABSTRACT

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are becoming recognized as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in several malignancies, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). miR-25 is overexpressed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and NSCLC tissues, and high miR-25 expression is associated with poorer overall survival of women with lung ADC. We hypothesised links between serum miR-25 levels and clinicopathological characteristics, diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC patients.

Methods: Serum miR-25 was determined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 128 NSCLC patients and 128 healthy controls, and links between miR-25 level and cliniopathological characteristics including diagnosis and prognosis were explored.

Results: Median (IQR) serum miR-25 levels were significantly increased in NSCLC compared to healthy controls at 0.86 relative units (0.14–1.78) versus 0.23 (0.08–0.96) (P < 0.001). Using a cut-off of 0.67 units, miR-25 had a sensitivity of 76.4%, specificity of 84.6%, accuracy of 72.6%, positive predictive value of 92.8% and negative predictive value of 68.5% for the diagnosis of NSCLC. High serum miR-25 level was significantly associated with gender (P = 0.042), tumour stage (P = 0.014) and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001). In multivariate analyses, miR-25 was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and relapse-free survival.

Conclusions: Serum levels of miR-25 could improve NSCLC screening, and be a useful diagnostic and prognostic marker of NSCLC.

KEYWORDS:

• Non-small-cell lung cancer
• miR-25
• prognosis
• diagnosis
• biomarker

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.