title: Clinical potential role of circulating microRNAs in early diagnosis of colorectal cancer patients.
abstract: Current procedures for diagnosis and biomarker examination of colorectal cancer (CRC) are invasive and unpleasant. There is a great need to identify sensitive and specific biomarkers for early diagnosis of CRC. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising molecular markers for CRC prediction. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to integrate an evaluation index for diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNAs in diagnosing CRC patients. Furthermore, we conducted an independent validation set of 49 CRC patients and 49 healthy controls. In our meta-analysis, we found that miR-21 yielded a pooled area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.867 (sensitivity: 76%, specificity: 82%) in discriminating CRC from controls, and miR-92a yielded a summary AUC of 0.803 (sensitivity: 77%, specificity: 68%); miR-21 had a higher diagnostic efficiency than miR-92a. In the further validation, plasma miR-21 levels in CRC patients were significantly higher than levels observed in healthy subjects. A ROC curve analysis showed a consistent result. However, this phenotype was not present in miR-92a. Moreover, the expression trend of miR-21 in plasma samples was in line with that of tissue samples, along with the cellular level. Current evidences suggest that plasma miR-21 could be a reliable and non-invasive biomarker for CRC diagnosis. Studies with larger cohorts that include the diagnostic value of plasma miR-21 for CRC are warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Mulong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Sang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210006, China.
authors.forename: Dongying
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Qiaoyan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China and.
authors.forename: Lingjun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Meiyun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Danni
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Haiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210006, China.
authors.forename: Jinfei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Genomics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Tamara S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, drzdzhang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zhengdong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Genomics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China, Department of Genetic Toxicology, The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011379:Prognosis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012372:ROC Curve; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs