Assessment of Circulating miRNA-17 and miRNA-222 Expression Profiles as Non-Invasive Biomarkers in Egyptian Patients with Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Lung cancer is one of the main human health threats. Survival of lung cancer patients depends on thetimely detection and diagnosis. Among the genetic irregularities that control cancer development and progression, thereare microRNAs (miRNAs). This study aimed to assess the plasma level of circulating miRNA-17 and miRNA-222 asnon-invasive markers in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Patients and methods: A total of 40 patientswith NSCLC and 20 healthy controls who were matched in terms of age and sex with the patient group were includedin this case-control study.. Estimation of miRNA-17 and miRNA-222 expression profiles in the plasma was doneusing quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The relationship between both markers and their clinicopathologicalfeatures were also determined. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was done to evaluate the role ofthese microRNAs in NSCLC diagnosis and follow-up. Results: MiRNA-17 and miRNA-222 levels were significantlyupregulated in NSCLC patients compared with controls (48.32±12.35 vs 1.16±0.19 and 34.53±3.1 vs 1.22±0.14)(P=0.000). Plasma miRNA-17 level was increased, and the miRNA-222 level was decreased across different stages ofthe disease; however, these differences d were not statistically significant (P=0.4, P=0.5, respectively). The miRNA-17levels were higher in the lung cancer patients with metastasis , but miRNA-222 levels were lower patients withoutmetastasis. We found no statistically significant difference in this regard(P=0.4 vs P=0.3, respectively). ROC curveanalysis showed that the sensi‌tivity and specificity of miRNA-17 were 77.78% and 87.50% , and of miRNA-222 were50% and 88.89%. Conclusion: MiRNA-17 and miRNA-222 can be considered as non-invasive biomarkers for detectionof early lung carcinogenesis and metastasis in patients with NSCLC, hence providing a basis for the development ofnovel therapeutic approaches.