Plasma miRNA biomarkers in limited volume samples for detection of early-stage pancreatic cancer

Rachel L. Dittmar, Suyu Liu, Mei Chee Tai, Kimal Rajapakshe, Ying Huang, Gary Longton, Christine DeCapite, Mark W. Hurd, Pamela L. Paris, Kimberly S. Kirkwood, Cristian Coarfa, Anirban Maitra, Randall E. Brand, Ann M. Killary, Subrata Sen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is key to improving patient outcomes; however, PDAC is usually diagnosed late. Therefore, blood-based minimally invasive biomarker assays for limited volume clinical samples are urgently needed. A novel miRNA profiling platform (Abcam Fireplex-Oncology Panel) was used to investigate the feasibility of developing early detection miRNA biomarkers with 20 mL plasma from a training set (58 stage II PDAC cases and 30 controls) and two validation sets (34 stage II PDAC cases and 25 controls; 44 stage II PDAC cases and 18 controls). miR-34a-5p [AUC ¼ 0.77; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.66–0.87], miR-130a-3p (AUC ¼ 0.74; 95% CI, 0.63–0.84), and miR-222-3p (AUC ¼ 0.70; 95% CI, 0.58–0.81) were identified as significantly differentially abundant in plasma from stage II PDAC versus controls. Although none of the miRNAs individually outperformed the currently used serologic biomarker for PDAC, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), combining the miRNAs with CA 19-9 improved AUCs from 0.89 (95% CI, 0.81–0.95) for CA 19-9 alone to 0.92 (95% CI, 0.86–0.97), 0.94 (95% CI, 0.89–0.98), and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87–0.97), respectively. Gene set enrichment analyses of transcripts correlated with high and low expression of the three miRNAs in The Cancer Genome Atlas PDAC sample set. These miRNA biomarkers, assayed in limited volume plasma together with CA19-9, discriminate stage II PDAC from controls with good sensitivity and specificity. Unbiased profiling of larger cohorts should help develop an informative early detection biomarker assay for diagnostic settings. Prevention Relevance: Development of minimally invasive biomarker assays for detection of premalignant disease and early-stage pancreatic cancer is key to improving patient survival. This study describes a limited volume plasma miRNA biomarker assay that can detect early-stage resectable pancreatic cancer in clinical samples necessary for effective prevention and clinical intervention.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)729-740
Number of pages12
JournalCancer Prevention Research
Volume14
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

MD Anderson CCSG core facilities

  • Biostatistics Resource Group

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