Droplet digital PCR quantification of miR-1290 as a circulating biomarker for pancreatic cancer

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 16389 - 11
• Main Authors: Tavano, Francesca, Gioffreda, Domenica, Valvano, Maria R., Palmieri, Orazio, Tardio, Matteo, Latiano, Tiziana P., Piepoli, Ada, Maiello, Evaristo, Pirozzi, Felice, Andriulli, Angelo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.11.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45/77; 45/90; 692/4028/67/1857; 692/53/2421; Biomarkers; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Pancreatic cancer; Plasma levels; Risk factors; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza; Pancreatic Cancer; Plasma miRNA Levels; Healthy Subjects; Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm (IPMN)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-34597-z

Droplet digital PCR was used to validate miR-1290 as circulating biomarker for pancreatic cancer (PC). The diagnostic performance of miR-1290 was evaluate in 167 PC patients and 267 healthy subjects at clinical risk of developing the disease (HS). MiR-1290 plasma levels were compared to CA 19-9 determinations, and the combination of the two biomarkers was also taken into account. Plasma levels of miR-1290 were higher in PC patients compared to HS (p = 2.55 × 10 −16 ). A similar trend was observed for CA 19-9 determinations (p = 1.03 × 10 −47 ). ROC curve analysis revealed that miR-1290 in combination with CA 19-9 was effective for discriminating between PC patients and HS (AUC = 0.956, 95% CI = 0.933–0.979) than the two biomarkers tested alone (miR-1290: AUC = 0.734, 0.678–0.789; CA 19-9: AUC = 0.914, 0.877–0.951). The discriminating ability was higher when only PC patients with low or slightly increased CA 19-9 levels were compared with HS. MiR-1290 concentrations were not able to differentiate between PC patients with single or multiple risk factors for developing PC. Our data suggest that the absolute quantification of circulating miR-1290 levels does not allow to select patients at clinical risk of PC for entry into a surveillance program, and underline the methodological challenges still existing in utilizing circulating miRNAs as new promising biomarkers for PC.