Evaluation of long noncoding RNA MALAT1 as a candidate blood-based biomarker for the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: The long noncoding RNA MALAT1 (metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1) is described as a potential biomarker for NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). Diagnostic biomarkers need to be detectable in easily accessible body fluids, should be characterized by high specificity, sufficient sensitivity, and robustness against influencing factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of MALAT1 as a blood based biomarker for NSCLC. RESULTS: MALAT1 was shown to be detectable in the cellular fraction of peripheral human blood, showing different expression levels between cancer patients and cancer-free controls. For the discrimination of NSCLC patients from cancer-free controls a sensitivity of 56% was calculated conditional on a high specificity of 96%. No impact of tumor stage, age, gender, and smoking status on MALAT1 levels could be observed, but results based on small numbers. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that MALAT1 complies with key characteristics of diagnostic biomarkers, i.e., minimal invasiveness, high specificity, and robustness. Due to its relatively low sensitivity MALAT1 might not be feasible as a single biomarker for the diagnosis of NSCLC in the cellular fraction of blood. Alternatively, MALAT1 might be applicable as a complementary biomarker within a panel in order to improve the entire diagnostic performance.