Diagnostic Performance of Circulating miRNA-92a and Related Circulating miRNA Panels for Colorectal Cancer: An...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biomarker Discovery
• Molecular Diagnostics

Background:

• Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality globally.
• Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs), especially miRNA-92a, are promising non-invasive biomarkers for CRC due to their stability and disease-specific expression.
• Early detection of CRC is crucial for improving patient survival rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic performance of circulating miRNA-92a for non-invasive CRC detection.
• To assess miRNA-92a as an individual biomarker and in combination with other circulating miRNAs.
• To analyze pooled sensitivity, specificity, and overall diagnostic accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar up to May 2025.
• Inclusion of 22 studies (1918 CRC patients, 1446 controls) adhering to PRISMA guidelines.
• Bivariate random-effects meta-analysis to pool diagnostic performance metrics (sensitivity, specificity, AUC, logDOR, PLR, NLR).

Main Results:

• Pooled sensitivity and specificity for circulating miRNA-92a and panels were 86% and 91%, respectively.
• High overall diagnostic performance with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87.
• Serum-based assays showed consistent results, with acceptable study quality and no significant publication bias detected.

Conclusions:

• Circulating miRNA-92a exhibits excellent diagnostic performance for early CRC detection.
• miRNA-92a holds significant potential as a non-invasive biomarker for colorectal cancer.
• Further large-scale prospective studies are needed to standardize protocols and confirm clinical utility.