Appraising MicroRNA-155 as a Noninvasive Diagnostic Biomarker for Cancer Detection

Abstract

Cancer has been a major public health issue all over the world and cancer patients diagnosed at early stages have a comparatively favorable prognosis. The association between specific dysregulated expressed microRNA-155 (miRNA-155, miR-155) and tumorigenesis has been identified by numerous studies. However, perplexity and inconsistence arise from a wide range of studies due to heterogeneity. Therefore, this meta-analysis was carried out to validate the association between miR-155 and tumorigenesis together with the clinical applicability of miR-155.Relevant studies were searched, identified, and selected from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Sinomed, and Wanfang database until July 5, 2015. Then, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the summary receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated to assess the overall performance miR-155 for cancer detection.A total of 25 studies were included in the meta-analysis with a total number of 1896 cancer patients and 1226 healthy controls. The overall sensitivity and specificity was 76.8% (95%CI: 71.1–81.7%) and 82.9% (95% CI: 77.5–87.3%), respectively. In addition, the pooled AUC and partial AUC was 0.867 and 0.718, respectively. Results from subgroup analyses suggested that the diagnostic accuracy of miR-155 in the Caucasian group was significantly higher than that in the Asian group. Similarly, serum sample type may provide better diagnostic value of miR-155 than plasma. Apart from that, miR-155 in breast cancer achieved the highest accuracy compared with miR-155 in other types of cancer.Results from meta-analysis suggested that miR-155 had great potential as a novel noninvasive biomarker for human cancer detection, particularly when breast cancer or Caucasian is involved. However, well-designed cohort or case control studies with large sample size should be implemented to confirm the diagnostic value of miR-155.

Dynamic Changes of Circulating Mir-155 Expression and the Potential Application as a Non-Invasive Biomarker in Breast Cancer

“…In accordance with these previous studies, we showed higher circulating miR-155 expression in breast cancer patients compared to healthy women. A meta-analysis involving 25 studies with total number of 1,896 breast cancer patients and 1,226 healthy controls showed the diagnostic accuracy of circulating miR-155 (Hou et al, 2016). Higher level of plasma miR-155 in early stage breast cancer has also been reported rendering its potential as early detection marker (Gao et al, 2017).…”

A nine-miRNA signature as a potential diagnostic marker for breast carcinoma: An integrated study of 1,110 cases

“…Current studies have focused on the diagnostic value of dysregulated miRNAs in BC (12,53). however, this is the first identification of a nine-miRNA signature as a potential multi-marker for diagnosing BC found by analyzing high-throughput miRNA expression profiles from TCGA data.…”

Identification of a plasma microRNA profile in untreated pulmonary tuberculosis patients that is modulated by anti-mycobacterial therapy

“…Patterns of expression of plasma miRNAs have proven to be reliable as a prognostic indicator for some malignancies and infectious diseases (14,15). The current study has examined the potential of an miRNA expression profile in the plasma to serve as a biomarker in patients with active pulmonary TB and to predict the response to therapy.…”