Evaluation of serum-paired miRNA ratios for early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer using quantum dot-based suspension array

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.