
AsianScientist (Aug. 21, 2015) – Early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is asymptomatic and difficult to detect since no blood test is currently available. In a study led by Professors Zhang Chen-Yu and Zhang Chunni’s group at Nanjing University, researchers have identified a panel of five serum microRNAs (miRNAs) as the potential biomarker for NSCLC diagnosis. Their study was published in the journal EBioMedicine.
MiRNAs are a family of small, single-stranded non-coding RNAs that are critical regulators of numerous diseases. In previous studies, Zhang’s group and others have demonstrated that human body fluid such as serum contains numerous stable miRNAs and serum miRNAs are promising novel biomarkers for cancer detection including NSCLC. However, blinded multicentric and multiethnic study of the diverse NSCLC was still lacking.
To address the lack of a sensitive and reliable biomarker for NSCLC, the group recruited 438 participants including 221 NSCLC patients, 161 controls and 56 benign nodules from both China and the US. They used a high-throughput TaqMan Low-Density Array scan combined with an individual quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction confirmation and identified a panel of five serum miRNAs: miR-483-5p, miR-193a-3p, miR-25, miR-214 and miR-7. These miRNAs were significantly elevated in NSCLC patients using samples from three independent Chinese cohorts.
Subsequently, a blind trial was then performed to assess the ability of the panel to diagnose NSCLC in a US cohort and to function as a reliable diagnostic indicator of NSCLC in patients of different ethnicities. The panel has a high accuracy to classified NSCLC cases and controls from both the Chinese and the US cohorts. Most importantly, the panel could correctly predict stage I-II tumors and is capable of distinguishing NSCLC from benign nodules in the US cohort.
This is the first multiethnic, multicentric, single-blind global analysis of miRNA expression patterns of NSCLC patients. They have collaborated with Johnson & Johnson and Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, who provided the US cohort samples that from Mayo Clinic in a blinded fashion.
The results demonstrate that effectiveness of the five-miRNA panel is not limited to Chinese patients, but also has high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of NSCLC in US patients. Thus, this miRNA panel has potential utility as a common potential biomarker for detecting NSCLC in persons of different races.
Furthermore, 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. This provides a potential window for early interventions, therapy and treatment options. It also expanded the results of previous studies of circulating-miRNA signatures in patients with NSCLC.
“We have clearly demonstrated that this group of serum miRNAs may potentially serve as a more accurate biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing NSCLC than traditional blood-based protein markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen and squamous cell carcinoma antigen,” said Zhang.
The article can be found at: Wang et al. (2015) A Five-miRNA Panel Identified From a Multicentric Case–control Study Serves as a Novel Diagnostic Tool for Ethnically Diverse Non-small-cell Lung Cancer Patients.
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Source: Nanjing University School of Life Sciences; Photo: Ed Uthman/Flickr/CC.
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