miRNA-21 as High Potential Prostate Cancer Biomarker in Prostate Cancer Patients in Indonesia

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the diagnostic performance of miRNA-21 to differentiate between Prostate Cancer (PCa) and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) patients in Indonesia. METHODS: Urine samples were collected from each PCa and BPH patient. miRNA-21 relative expression against the reference gene was analyzed and compared between the two. miRNA expression was then analyzed using the comparative quantification method to find the fold change. miR-21 validity in identifying PCa patients was performed by quantifying the sensitivity and specificity using samples in this study. RESULT: The results of this study indicated that miRNA-21 relative expression against miRNA-16 in PCa and BPH showed 12.95 differences in fold change. Moreover, using prostate biopsy as the gold standard to differentiate PCa and BPH, miRNA-21 Cq expression has 100% sensitivity and 75% specificity in differentiating the two. CONCLUSION: miRNA-21 relative expression can be used to discriminate PCa from BPH by using a urine sample. Furthermore, the expression of miR-21 has higher sensitivity than PSA; therefore, miR-21 has a high potential to be analyzed and developed further for clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer.