Seven-microRNA panel for lung adenocarcinoma early diagnosis in patients presenting with ground-glass nodules

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA (miRNA) expression is correlated with tumor histology, differentiation, invasiveness and treatment outcome. We aimed to identify miRNAs whose differential expression might enable early diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma in patients presenting with ground-glass nodules (GGNs). METHODS: To identify potential miRNAs of interest, we analyzed the miRNA expression profile of tumor and adjacent non-para-tumor tissue in three participants by next-generation sequencing (NGS). We then assessed the expression levels of the miRNAs of interest in 73 lung adenocarcinomas presenting with GGNs with matched adjacent non-tumor tissue by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). We also detected the miRNA panel in 66 lung benign diseases and 66 lung adenocarcinomas presenting with GGN lesion tissues by qRT-PCR. Target genes of our selected miRNA panel were predicted using Miranda with default parameters. RESULTS: Twenty-three miRNAs showed differential expression between tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissue by NGS. Five miRNAs exhibited higher expression in tumor tissue compared to adjacent non-tumor tissue (P<0.05); 18 miRNAs demonstrated lower expression in tumor tissue versus adjacent non-tumor tissue (P<0.05). When qRT-PCR was performed for the 23 miRNAs identified by NGS in the pilot stage, seven were found to have statistically significant expression in tumor versus adjacent non-tumor tissue (P<0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of seven-miRNA panel were 86.4% and 60.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The predicted targets of our miRNAs of interest are frequently associated with cancer signaling pathways. We developed a miRNA panel that could potentially predict the presence of lung adenocarcinoma in patients presenting with GGNs.