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Updated: Sep 2, 2025
Detection of a Circulating MicroRNA Custom Panel in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Published on: March 14, 2019
A novel circulating miRNA panel for non-invasive ovarian cancer diagnosis and prognosis
Aoife Ward Gahlawat1,2, Tania Witte3, Lisa Haarhuis3
1Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. aoife.gahlawat@med.uni-heidelberg.de.
Background:
Ovarian cancer (OC) is an aggressive disease, primarily diagnosed in late stages with only 20% of patients surviving more than 5 years after diagnosis. There is a pending need to improve current diagnostics and prognostics.
Methods:
In this study, we investigated total circulating cell-free microRNA (cf-miRNA) levels as well as a panel of cf-miRNAs in the plasma of OC patients (n = 100), patients with benign lesions (n = 45) and healthy controls (n = 99).
Results:
High levels of cf-miRNAs correlated with unfavourable clinical features and were an independent prognosticator of patient survival. By mining NGS data, we identified a signature panel of seven individual cf-miRNAs which could distinguish controls from benign cases with an AUC of 0.77 and controls from cancer cases with an AUC of 0.87. Importantly, in combination with the current gold-standard marker, CA-125, the panel could predict early OC with an AUC of 0.93.
Conclusion:
Our findings highlight the potential of cf-miRNA levels as well as individual cf-miRNAs for OC diagnosis and prognosis that warrants further clinical evaluation.
