title: Circulating miR-148a is a significant diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for patients with osteosarcoma.
abstract: The purpose of the present study was to detect the expression levels of circulating miR-148a in the peripheral blood of osteosarcoma patients and to further investigate the clinicopathological, diagnostic, and prognostic value of miR-148a. Eighty-nine patients with initially diagnosed osteosarcoma who successfully underwent surgical resection were enrolled in this prospective study. The expression levels of circulating miR-148a were detected by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. All statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 18.0 statistical software to determine the potential values of circulating miR-148a on the clinicopathological factors, diagnosis, and prognosis. The expression levels of circulating miR-148a in osteosarcoma patients were significantly higher than that in the healthy controls (P < 0.001), and miR-148a was capable of distinguishing osteosarcoma patients from healthy controls effectively (AUC = 0.783). In addition, miR-148a expression was significantly associated with tumor size (P = 0.049) and distant metastasis (P = 0.004). Univariate survival analysis demonstrated that patients with miR-148a high expression had significantly poor overall survival (P < 0.001) and disease-specific survival (P < 0.001) after 5 years' operation. Multivariate survival analysis confirmed that miR-148a high expression was an independent predictor for unfavorable overall survival (P = 0.003) and disease-specific survival (P = 0.008), respectively. Our findings demonstrated that detection of circulating miR-148a expression in the peripheral blood have clinical potentials as an indicator of progressive phenotype, a novel diagnostic biomarker and a promising predictor to identify individuals with poor prognosis for osteosarcoma patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, the Second Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong University, Bei yuan da jie 247, 250033, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: Wanli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xuhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Mingzhi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D047368:Tumor Burden; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C550570:MIRN148 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs