MiR-18a has been reported in many cancer types, including prostate cancer, gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer. Nevertheless, the role of miR-18a remains unclear in bladder cancer.
The expression of miR-18a in bladder cancer tissues was evaluated by qRT-PCR. The diagnostic value of plasma miR-18a was detected by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier, and the prognostic significance of miR-18a was analyzed using Cox regression analysis.
MiR-18a was observed to be upregulated in human bladder cancer tissues. Moreover, the expression of plasma miR-18a was found to be closely associated with tumor type, histological grade, TNM stage and tumor size. High expression of miR-18a was found to be capable of predicting unfavorable clinical prognosis in bladder cancer patients. Notably, plasma miR-18a expression was shown to exhibit fundamental diagnostic significance in discriminating bladder cancer patients from healthy individuals, and in differentiating muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) from non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
This study demonstrated that miR-18a is a potential diagnostic biomarker associated with the prognosis of bladder cancer patients. Hence, miR-18a may be a useful biomarker for the screening of bladder cancer.
Clinical biochemistry. 2020 Dec 11 [Epub ahead of print]
Rui-Xia Song, Gong-Jian Zhu, Chen-Ming Dong, Zhi-Ping Wang
Institute of Urology, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Key Laboratory of Urological Diseases in Gansu Province, Gansu Nephro-Urological Clinical Center, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, PR China; Department of Critical Care Medicine, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, PR China., Gansu Provincial Academy of Medical Sciences, Gansu Provincial Cancer Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu 730050, PR China., Department of Critical Care Medicine, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, PR China., Institute of Urology, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Key Laboratory of Urological Diseases in Gansu Province, Gansu Nephro-Urological Clinical Center, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, PR China. Electronic address: .