Serum Level of microRNA-429 is as a Promising Diagnostic Biomarker for Cervical Cancer Patients

Backgrounds: Serum microRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of diagnostic biomarkers for human cancers. However, the clinical relevance of circulating microRNA-429 (miR-429) in cervical cancer patients remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate serum miR-429 levels in cervical cancer patients, as well as its association with clinical characteristics and diagnostic value.Methods: Serum miR-429 expression was investigated in 113 cervical cancer patients and 107 healthy normal controls by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Chi-square test was applied to evaluate the correlation between miR-429 expression and clinicopathological parameters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to assess the diagnostic significance of serum miR-429 in cervical cancer.Results: Serum miR-429 expression was significantly down-regulated in cervical cancer compared with healthy controls (P=0.000). In addition, serum miR-429 level was correlated with differentiation (P=0.031), FIGO stage (P=0.030), and lymph node metastasis (P=0.045). ROC curves demonstrated that serum miR-429 expression could distinguish cervical cancer patients from healthy controls with the sensitivity of 81.4% and the specificity of 69.2%. Additionally, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.816 and the cut-off value was 0.825.Conclusion: MiR-429 is down-regulated in cervical cancer and associated with aggressive clinical characteristics. MiR-429 may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for cervical cancer.