AUA 2017: IPanel of 6 microRNAs for minimally invasive diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

Boston, MA (UroToday.com) PSA and DRE remains the standard of care for prostate cancer screening although its predictive value remains limited. Several urinary (PCA3) and serum (Phi Score and 4KScore) biomarkers have been introduce to improve screening in patients at risk for prostate cancer. Dr. Alekseev introduces a novel panel for improve detection of prostate cancer using serum circulating microRNAs.

The study was a cross-sectional study that included 245 patients seen at the urology clinic. The cohort was separated into 2 groups. Group 1 included 188 patients with histological evidence of prostate cancer and group 2 included 57 healthy individuals’ benign GU conditions. Profile of microRNAs were studied using the aid of GeneChip® composed of 2,578 human mature miRNAs. All microRNAs with 3rd quartile Bi-weight average signal were excluded from the analysis as were any microRNA associated with hemolysis. SMV-based approach was used to develop of a diagnostic classifier.

Diagnostic significance was seen with three even pair mircoRNAs (hsa-miR-155-5p, has-miR-619-5p and has-miR-6777-5p) with a sensitivity of 80.7% and specificity of 62.9% (AUC 0.817). Better accuracy was achieved with triplets of microRNAs achieving a sensitivity of 83.7% and specificity of 84.6%.

The authors conclude that there is high diagnostic potential using a panel of 6 circulating microRNAs for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. The study presents some provocative data regarding the use of mircoRNAs for the detection of prostate cancer. Sadly, the authors fail to correlate their findings with Gleason score thus its possible to assess if the predictive ability of the test is for prostate cancer as whole or for clinically significant prostate cancer (Gleason ≥ 7).

Presented By: Boris Alekseev, National Medical Research Radiological Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation

Written By: Andres F. Correa, MD, Society of Urologic Oncology Fellow, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

at the 2017 AUA Annual Meeting - May 12 - 16, 2017 – Boston, Massachusetts, USA