Clinical Evaluation of the Diagnostic Role of MicroRNA-155 in Breast Cancer
Fatemeh Hosseini Mojahed, Amir Hossein Aalami, Vahid Pouresmaeil, Amir Amirabadi, Mahdi Qasemi Rad, Amirhossein Sahebkar
Abstract
Aim . Biochemical markers, including microRNAs (miRs), may facilitate the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer. This study was aimed at assessing serum miR-155 expression in patients with breast cancer and receptors. Methods . This case-control study was conducted on 36 patients with breast cancer and 36 healthy individuals. After RNA extraction from the patient’s serum, cDNA was synthesized. The expression of miR-155 was measured using RT-qPCR. Demographic and histochemical data were extracted from patient documents. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results . The mean age of subjects in breast cancer and control groups was <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mn>47.64</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>8.19</mml:mn></mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mn>47.36</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>7.52</mml:mn></mml:math> years, respectively. The serum miR-155 expression was higher in the cancer group (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mn>1.68</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.66</mml:mn></mml:math>) compared to the control group (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.0001</mml:mn></mml:math>). There was a significant relationship between serum miR-155 expression and the tumor grade (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>), tumor stage (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>), and tumor size (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>) of the patients. However, no relationship between miR-155 expression and the presence of lymph node involvement (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M8"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.15</mml:mn></mml:math>), HER2 (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M9"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.79</mml:mn></mml:math>), Ki-67 (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M10"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.9</mml:mn></mml:math>), progesterone receptor (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M11"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.54</mml:mn></mml:math>), and estrogen receptors (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M12"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.84</mml:mn></mml:math>) was found. The ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC was 0.89 (77.78% sensitivity and 88.89% specificity), and the cutoff was 1.4 (Youden index: 0.6667) for detecting breast cancer. Conclusion . The findings of this study revealed that serum miR-155 may serve as a potential noninvasive molecular biomarker for breast cancer diagnosis and can help predict the grade of the disease.