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Abstract
Analysis of molecular genetic markers in biological fluids has been proposed as a
useful tool for cancer diagnosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNAs that
are frequently dysregulated in lung cancer and have shown promise as tissue-based
markers for its prognostication. The aim of this study was to determine whether aberrant
miRNA expression can be used as a marker in sputum specimen for the diagnosis of non-small
cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
expressions of mature miRNAs, mir-21 and mir-155, were examined by real-time reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and normalized to that of control
miRNA, U6B, in sputum of 23 patients with NSCLC and 17 cancer-free subjects. The data
was compared with conventional sputum cytology for the diagnosis of lung cancer. All
endogenous miRNAs were present in sputum in a remarkably stable form and sensitively
and specifically detected by real-time RT-PCR. Mir-21 expression in the sputum specimens
was significantly higher in cancer patients (76.32+/-9.79) than cancer-free individuals
(62.24+/-3.82) (P<0.0001). Furthermore, overexpression of mir-21 showed highly discriminative
receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve profile, clearly distinguishing cancer
patients from cancer-free subjects with areas under the ROC curve at 0.902+/-0.054.
Detection of mir-21 expression produced 69.66% sensitivity and 100.00% specificity
in diagnosis of lung cancer, as compared with 47.82% sensitivity and 100.00% specificity
by sputum cytology. The measurement of altered miRNA expression in sputum could be
a useful noninvasive approach for the diagnosis of lung cancer.
Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.