Abstract
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lacks specific noninvasive markers at early stage. Previous studies have indicated that several miRNAs may be potential noninvasive markers in the diagnosis of NSCLC. In the present study, we examined the expression of 9 miRNAs in serum from 128 NSCLC patients at stage I and from 79 healthy controls using quantum dot-based suspension array. Our results have demonstrated that the expression of miR-15b-5p and miR-17-5p was significantly increased in the serum of NSCLC cases, while the expression of miR-20a-5p, miR-16-5p, and miR-19a-3p were downregulated in NSCLC patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the ratios of miR-15b-5p/miR-20a-5p and miR-15b-5p/miR-16-5p have the best performance for the diagnosis of early-stage NSCLC with a specificity of 83.2% and 79.2% and sensitivity of 74.3% and 86.8%, respectively. The AUCs were 0.842 and 0.831. In summary, miR-15b-5p/miR-20a-5p and miR-15b-5p/miR-16-5p ratios were both important indicators as well as CEA and CYFRA21-1 for the diagnosis of stage I NSCLC. The ratios of miR-15b-5p/miR-20a-5p and miR-15b-5p/miR-16-5p could be used as novel noninvasive biomarkers for NSCLC diagnosis at early stage, particularly combined with serum CEA and CYFRA21-1 results.
Highlights
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in China or throughout the world [1]
Most NSCLC patients are diagnosed with advanced stages and less than 10% of them can survive more than 5 years [2], whereas the survival rate can reach up to 92% for patients with clinical stage I who undergo surgical resection within one month after diagnosis [3]
The core CdSe Quantum dots (QDs) were prepared and several layers of ZnSe and ZnS shells were coated on the surface of the CdSe QDs by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR)
Summary
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in China or throughout the world [1]. The establishment of a noninvasive and effective detection of early NSCLC would greatly improve the survival of patients with lung cancer. Low-dose spiral computerized tomography (LDCT) scanning is the most important method for the screening and noninvasive diagnosis of lung cancer. It is difficult to identify the benign and malignant nodules whose diameters are less than 1 cm [4]. Serum tumor markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratins (CYFRA21-1), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) do not show high significant
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