title: Effects of miR-16 plus CA19-9 detections on pancreatic cancer diagnostic performance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the detection of serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) has traditionally been used for the diagonosis of pancreatic cancer, the specific markers are lacking. The miRNAs have been used as new diagnosic markers in cancer patients. The effects of miR-16 plus CA19-9 detections on pancreatic cancer diagnostic performance were analyzed in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  70 pancreatic cancer patients and 70 chronic pancreatitis patients were recruited from January 2011 to August 2012 and 50 healthy volunteers for comparison. Serum CA19-9 level was measured by a chemiluminescent method. Plasma miR-16 level was measured by a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction method. The effects of detecting miR-16, CA19-9, and their combination on pancreatic cancer diagnosis were analyzed. The plasma miR-16 content of the pancreatic cancer group was higher than that of the chronic pancreatitis group (p < 0.05), but the contents of the two groups did not differ significantly. Combining miR-16 and CA19-9 detections significantly increased the sensitivity and specificity of pancreatic cancer diagnosis (LR+ > 20, LR- < 0.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The combination of miR-16 and CA19-9 detections boosted the diagnostic performance in pancreatic cancer detection.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, China.
authors.forename: Song-Bing
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, China.
authors.forename: De-Chun
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; C505362:MIRN16 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs