J Cancer 2019; 10(14):3154-3171. doi:10.7150/jca.30306 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Radiotherapy & Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
2. Institute of Radiotherapy & Oncology, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
3. Department of Radiation Oncology, The Affiliated Suzhou Science & Technology Town Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou Science & Technology Town Hospital, Suzhou, China
4. Department of Oncology, Nantong Rich Hospital, Nantong, China
*These authors contributed equally to this work.
Background: Previous studies demonstrated that microRNA-92a (miR-92a) may serve as a novel promising biomarker in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of miR-92a in CRC is lacking. We aimed to systematically summarize the diagnostic and prognostic values of miR-92a in CRC.
Methods: The diagnostic and prognostic roles of individual miR-92a and the combination biomarkers based on miR-92a were evaluated through comprehensive meta-analyses. Meanwhile, the function and potential mechanisms of miR-92a were assessed by an integrative bioinformatics analysis.
Results: According to the results, we found that miR-92a yielded a pooled area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.82 (sensitivity: 76%, specificity: 75%) in discriminating CRC from controls. Notably, the combination biomarkers based on miR-92a increased the diagnostic performance, yielding an AUC of 0.91, with a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 87%. For the prognostic meta-analysis, patients with higher expression of miR-92a had significant shorter overall survival (pooled HR: 2.30; 95% CI: 1.03-5.12). In addition, the regulated genes of miR-92a were retrieved and enriched through gene ontology and pathway analysis, indicating their correlations with the initiation and progression of CRC. Furthermore, protein-protein interaction network was set up with miR-92a targets and screened for hub nodes and significant modules, which were confirmed strongly involved in the occurrence and development of CRC again.
Conclusions: Current evidences suggest miR-92a is a promising biomarker for early detection and prognosis of CRC while miRNA combination biomarkers may be considered as the right way for clinical practice. However, more prospective studies are required to highlight the theoretical strengths.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Biomarker, Meta-analysis, System biological analysis