Whole blood-derived miRNA profiles as potential new tools for ovarian cancer screening

BACKGROUND: Screening is an unsolved problem for ovarian cancer (OvCA). As late detection is equivalent to poor prognosis, we analysed whether OvCA patients show diagnostically meaningful microRNA (miRNA) patterns in blood cells. METHODS: Blood-borne whole miRNome profiles from 24 patients with OvCA and 15 age-and sex-matched healthy controls were biostatistically evaluated. RESULTS: Student's t-test revealed 147 significantly deregulated miRNAs before and 4 after Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment. Although these included miRNAs already linked to OvCA (e. g., miR-16, miR-155), others had never before been connected to specific diseases. A bioinformatically calculated miRNA profile allowed for discrimination between blood samples of OvCA patients and healthy controls with an accuracy of >76%. When only cancers of the serous subtype were considered and compared with an extended control group (n=39), accuracy, specificity and sensitivity all increased to >85%. CONCLUSION: Our proof-of-principle study strengthens the hypothesis that neoplastic diseases generate characteristic miRNA fingerprints in blood cells. Still, the obtained OvCA-associated miRNA pattern is not yet sensitive and specific enough to permit the monitoring of disease progression or even preventive screening. Microarray-based miRNA profiling from peripheral blood could thus be combined with other markers to improve the notoriously difficult but important screening for OvCA. British Journal of Cancer (2010) 103, 693-700. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605833 www.bjcancer.com Published online 3 August 2010 (C) 2010 Cancer Research UK