Abstract 2724: Brush biopsy miRNA based OSCC detection and diagnosis

Abstract

Abstract RNA based diagnosis and prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma has been slow to come to the clinic. Improvements in RNA measurement, statistical evaluation, and sample preservation still have not made these methods accurate enough to allow truly independent external validation. We propose that in the case of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity that a chief source of variability is sample dissection which leads to variable amounts of stroma mixed in with tumor epithelium. We have used brush biopsy of suspicious lesions to characterize miRNA expression in OSCC epithelium. We used it to show an 11 miRNA signature for OSCC that can differentiate OSCC in both smokers and never smokers from normal tissue. We will report on efforts to optimize this classifier to distinguish OSCC from benign oral lesions such as lichen planus and leukoplakia that can be mistaken for OSCC. We also provide evidence that body fluid samples show similar changes in RNAs with OSCC that are seen in brush biopsy samples -suggesting much of the RNA is coming from the same source tumor epithelium. Finally, using a variation of mirPath designed to eliminate false positive, we have identified the neurotrophin signaling pathway as disregulated in most OSCC epithelium, and for the first time highlight the miRNAs that may control this pathway in OSCC, miR-486-5p, miR-7-5p, miR-146-5p, miR-101-3p, miR-18b-5p, miR-10b-5p, miR-21-5p, miR-20b-5p, miR-126-3p and miR-31-5p. Citation Format: Guy R. Adami, Joel L. Schwartz, Yalu Zhou, Jessica L. Tang, Michael Markiewicz, Gina D. Jefferson, Joel Epstein, Antonia Kolokythas. Brush biopsy miRNA based OSCC detection and diagnosis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2724. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2724