Usefulness of serum miR‑1246/miR‑106b ratio in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

The function of microRNAs (miRs) is associated with the development and progression of various malignancies, with miRs presenting stably in the serum. The current study assessed the role of miR-1246 and miR-106b in the serum of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). A comprehensive microarray analysis of miR expression was performed using the serum of patients with ESCC, which were subsequently validated via reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. A total of 55 test samples were obtained from Chiba University and 101 validation samples were gained from Chiba Cancer Center. The results revealed that miR-1246 expression significantly increased and miR-106b expression significantly decreased in each cohort. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) value of miR-1246 was 0.816 (sensitivity, 72.7%; specificity, 69.2%) and 0.779 (sensitivity, 71.3%; specificity, 70.6%) for the test and validation cohorts, respectively. The AUC of miR-106b was 0.716 (sensitivity, 65.5%; specificity, 61.6%) and 0.815 (sensitivity, 74.3%; specificity, 73.5%), respectively. In addition, the AUC of the miR-1246/miR-106b ratio was 0.901 (sensitivity, 80.0%; specificity, 80.0%) and 0.903 (sensitivity, 82.1%; specificity, 82.3%), respectively, which indicated a higher diagnostic ability compared with that of miR-1246 or miR-106b alone. The high miR-1246/miR-106b ratio group was associated with clinicopathological factors such as depth of invasion, progression, lymph node metastasis, and poor prognosis. Therefore, effective biomarkers may be generated by combining individual miRs obtained by comprehensive analysis of ESCC patient sera.

The Abnormal Glycopatterns of Salivary Glycoproteins in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients

“…Despite the continuous improvement in medical technology and comprehensive treatment, the prognosis of ESCC patients remains poor ( Yang et al, 2020a ; Wei et al, 2020 ). It is reported that the overall survival rate of ESCC is as high as 20–30%, and there is still much room for improvement because the 5-year survival rate of ESCC patients could rapidly increase to 80–90% if they were detected in the early stage and received the timely intervention ( Fitzmaurice et al, 2017 ; Hoshino et al, 2020 ). Unfortunately, since nearly half of early-stage ESCC patients were unlikely to show clinical symptoms, coupled with the lack of reliable noninvasive screening methods, more than 50% of ESCC patients were diagnosed at the advanced stages ( Ohashi et al, 2015 ; Kojima and Doi, 2017 ).…”

The Diagnostic Power of Circulating miR-1246 in Screening Cancer: An Updated Meta-analysis

“…Among 29 included studies [ 19 – 47 ], seven studies demonstrated the diagnostic performance of circulating miR-1246 in breast cancer [ 21 , 24 , 26 , 29 , 41 , 42 , 44 ], while four studies showed data for colorectal cancer [ 20 , 33 , 37 , 46 ], four others for hepatocellular carcinoma [ 23 , 31 , 32 , 43 ], and three for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma or pancreatic cancer [ 19 , 27 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 45 ] ( Table 1 ). Twenty-six out of 29 studies included healthy individuals as the control group, which did not avoid a case-control design and thus might introduce biases according to the QUADAS-2 revised tool ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…Study Characteristics. Among 29 included studies , seven studies demonstrated the diagnostic performance of circulating miR-1246 in breast cancer [21,24,26,29,41,42,44], while four studies showed data for colorectal cancer [20,33,37,46], four others for hepatocellular carcinoma [23,31,32,43], and three for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma or pancreatic cancer [19,27,35,36,39,45] (Table 1). Twenty-six out of 29 studies included healthy 8…”

Circulating MicroRNAs in Gastrointestinal Cancer

“…A six-miRNA signature of upregulated miR-106a, miR-18a, miR-20b, miR-486-5p, and miR-584 and downregulated miR-223-3p in ESCC was identified, which could correctly discriminate esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients from healthy controls. Hoshino et al [51] assessed the role of miR-1246 and miR-106b in the serum of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The results revealed that miR-1246 expression was significantly increased and miR-106b expression significantly decreased in each cohort.…”