Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, 610072, China.
School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China.
BMC Cancer. 2018 Jun 22;18(1):676. doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4601-5.
Novel non-invasive biomarkers for gastric cancer (GC) are needed, because the present diagnostic methods for GC are either invasive or insensitive and non-specific in clinic. The presence of stable circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma suggested a promising role as GC biomarkers.
Based on the quantitative droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), four miRNAs (miR-21, miR-93, miR-106a and miR-106b) related to the presence of GC were identified in plasma from a training cohort of 147 participants and a validation cohort of 28 participants.
All circulating miRNA levels were significantly higher in the plasma of GC patients compared to healthy controls (P < 0.05). Through a combination of four miRNAs by logistic regression model, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses yielded the highest AUC value of 0.887 in discriminating GC patients from healthy volunteers. Furthermore, miR-21, miR-93 and miR-106b levels were significantly related to an advanced TNM stage in GC patients. ROC analyses of the combined miRNA panel also showed the highest AUC value of 0.809 in discriminating GC patients with TNM stage I and II from stage III and IV. Through combining four miRNAs and clinical parameters, a classical random forest model was established in the training stage. In the validation cohort, it correctly discriminated 23 out of 28 samples in the blinded phase (false rate, 17.8%).
Using the ddPCR technique, circulating miR-21, miR-93, miR-106a and miR-106b could be used as diagnostic plasma biomarkers in gastric cancer patients.
目前用于胃癌（GC）的诊断方法不是侵入性的，就是在临床上不敏感或特异性不强，因此需要新型的非侵入性生物标志物。血浆中稳定存在的循环 microRNAs（miRNAs）作为 GC 生物标志物具有很大的应用潜力。
基于定量液滴数字 PCR（ddPCR），在包含 147 名参与者的训练队列和 28 名参与者的验证队列中鉴定出与 GC 存在相关的 4 种 miRNA（miR-21、miR-93、miR-106a 和 miR-106b）。
与健康对照组相比，GC 患者的所有循环 miRNA 水平均显著升高（P<0.05）。通过逻辑回归模型组合四种 miRNA，ROC 分析在区分 GC 患者和健康志愿者方面获得了最高的 AUC 值 0.887。此外，miR-21、miR-93 和 miR-106b 水平与 GC 患者的晚期 TNM 分期显著相关。组合 miRNA 面板的 ROC 分析在区分 TNM 分期 I 和 II 的 GC 患者与分期 III 和 IV 的患者方面也显示出最高的 AUC 值 0.809。通过将四种 miRNA 与临床参数相结合，在训练阶段建立了经典的随机森林模型。在验证队列中，它在盲法阶段正确区分了 28 个样本中的 23 个（错误率为 17.8%）。
使用 ddPCR 技术，循环 miR-21、miR-93、miR-106a 和 miR-106b 可作为胃癌患者的诊断性血浆生物标志物。
