Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men worldwide. Currently available diagnostic and prognostic tools for this disease, such as PSA, suffer from lack of specificity and sensitivity, resulting in over- and misdiagnosis. Hence, there is an urgent need for clinically relevant biomarkers capable of distinguishing between aggressive and non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer to aid in stratification, management and therapeutic decisions. To address this unmet need, we investigated the patterns of expression of a panel of 68 plasma-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) in a cohort of African American (AA) and European American (EA) prostate cancer patients (n=114). miRNA qPCR results were analyzed using in-depth statistical methods, and a bioinformatics analysis was conducted to identify potential targets of the differentially expressed miRNAs. Our data demonstrate that a new previously unreported circulating miRNA signature consisting of a combination of interacting miRNAs (miR-17/miR-192) and an independent miRNA (miR-181a) are capable of segregating aggressive and non-aggressive prostate cancer in both AA and EA patients. The interacting miRNAs outperformed independent miRNAs in identifying aggressiveness. Our results suggest that these circulating miRNAs may constitute novel biomarkers of prostate cancer aggressiveness in both races and warrant further investigation.
Carcinogenesis. 2018 Feb 17 [Epub ahead of print]
Batoul Farran, Gregory Dyson, Douglas Craig, Alan Dombkowski, Jennifer L Beebe-Dimmer, Isaac J Powell, Izabela Podgorski, Lance Heilbrun, Susan Bolton, Cathryn H Bock
Karmanos Cancer Institute, Department of Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA., Karmanos Cancer Institute, Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA., Karmanos Cancer Institute, Department of Urology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA., Karmanos Cancer Institute, Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA.