MicroRNA Expression in Plasma of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients
Dong Hwahn Kahng, Gwang Ha Kim, Su Jin Park, Sora Kim, Moon Won Lee, Bong Eun Lee, I Hoseok
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have a poor prognosis and there are no effective clinical biomarkers. Recently, stable microRNAs detected in the blood have been suggested as potential biomarkers in various cancers. Therefore, we investigated whether plasma microRNAs could be feasible biomarkers for ESCC. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 16 healthy volunteers and 66 ESCC patients before treatment between May 2016 and April 2021. Plasma miR-18b, miR-21, miR-31, and miR-375 expression levels were measured using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: = 0.164). The sensitivities and specificities of miR-21, miR-31, and miR-375 for differentiating ESCC patients from healthy controls were 87.5% and 61.9%, 87.5% and 98.4%, and 87.5% and 100%, respectively. There was no difference in expression levels of plasma miR-21, miR-31, and miR-375 according to clinicopathological characteristics of sex, age, tumor size and location, histologic grade, and tumor-node-metastasis stage. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that plasma miR-21, miR-31, and miR-375 could be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of ESCC. Particularly, plasma miR-31 and miR-375 showed high sensitivity and specificity for differentiating ESCC patients from healthy controls.