Circulating miR-222 in plasma and its potential diagnostic and prognostic value in gastric cancer

• DOI: 10.1007/s12032-014-0164-8
• Publication Date: 2014-08-16T07:02:50Z
• Authors: Zhengchuan Fu; Fang Qian; Xuhuan Yang; Hailiang Jiang; Yu Chen; Sihai Liu
• Keywords: Hematology; Value (mathematics)

Previous studies have revealed the significance of circulating microRNAs as biomarkers for cancers. The aim of this study was to detect the levels of circulating microRNA-222 (miR-222) in plasma of gastric cancer (GC) patients and evaluate its diagnostic and prognostic value. Levels of circulating miR-222 were detected by using qRT-PCR in plasma of 114 GC patients, 36 chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) patients and 56 healthy controls. The result showed that the expression of circulating miR-222 in plasma was significantly upregulated in GC compared with CAG and healthy controls (all at P < 0.001). And its high level was significantly correlated with clinical stages (P < 0.001) and lymph nodes metastasis (P = 0.009). The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses revealed that miR-222 had considerable diagnostic accuracy, yielded an AUC (the areas under the ROC curve) of 0.850 with 66.1 % sensitivity and 88.3 % specificity in discriminating GC from healthy controls. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a correlation between increased circulating miR-222 level and reduced disease-free survival (P = 0.016) and overall survival (P = 0.012). In multivariate analysis stratified for known prognostic variables, circulating miR-222 was identified as an independent prognostic marker. In conclusion, our findings suggested that circulating miR-222 in plasma might be a potential and useful noninvasive biomarker for the early detection and prognosis of GC.