Diagnostic significance of miR-106a in gastric cancer

As one of the most common malignant tumors, gastric cancer still lacks tumor markers with enough specificity and sensitivity. Therefore the development of novel tumor markers is necessary for early diagnosis in clinics. MicroRNA (miR) has been known to be of unique expressional patterns in various tumors and may work as potential tumor markers for clinical use. This study thus explored the significance of plasma miR-106a in clinical diagnosis of gastric cancer and its effects on proliferation of cancer cells. Plasma miR-106a levels were quantified by real-time quantitative fluorescent PCR methods in 80 cases of gastric cancer patients and healthy individuals to analyze the correlation between miR-106a and clinical features. MiR-106 inhibitor was further transfected into human gastric carcinoma cells for further cell proliferation using CCK-8 approach. MiR-106a was significantly up-regulated in gastric cancer patient plasma samples compared to healthy individuals (P<0.01). The area under ROC curve was 0.895 (95% CI: 0.846~0.943). It has a specificity of 93.8% and a sensitivity of 77.5% in diagnosing gastric cancer. MiR-106a level was also correlated with cancer differentiation stage, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage and tumor size (P<0.05). The down-regulation of miR-106 in gastric carcinoma cells inhibited cell proliferation (P<0.05). MiR-106a was significantly up-regulated in gastric cancer patients and can facilitate the in vitro proliferation of tumor cells. It may work as a biological marker for gastric cancer.