A Plasma MicroRNA Panel to Diagnose Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Predict the Effect of Radiation Therapy: Translational Research

Purpose/Objective(s)The poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is partially due to the lack of an effective means for early diagnosis. Moreover, the radioresistance of ESCC is a great obstacle to its treatment. Our study aimed to identify plasma microRNAs for early diagnosis of ESCC and to further investigate whether it can be used as predictors of radiation therapy outcomes.Materials/MethodsWe selected 9 microRNA (miR-16, miR-21, miR-22, miR-126, miR-148b, miR-185, miR-221, miR-223 and miR-375), which were reported to be associated with carcinogenesis and radiobiology of ESCC, as the targets of our study. The peripheral blood from subjects was collected between August 2009 and June 2013. Plasma microRNA expression was investigated with 2 independent stages including 43 subjects (19 healthy, 24 pre-, after 1 week and postradiation therapy). Quantitative reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (qRT-PCR) assay was applied to evaluate the expression of selected microRNAs. A logistic regression model was constructed based on the first cohort. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy.ResultsWe found 4 microRNAs including miR-148b, miR-185, miR-221 and miR-375 which had significantly higher expression levels in the ESCC group than those in the healthy group (fold change = 2.9-19.3, P