MicroRNA-206 has a bright application prospect in the diagnosis of cases with oral cancer

摘要

Previous studies have shown that microRNA-206 ( miR-206 ) exhibits anti-tumour properties in various tumours. Nevertheless, diagnostic significance of miR-206 in oral cancer is still poorly known. Our research was carried out to explore the performance of miR-206 in the diagnosis of oral cancer. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) method was adopted to measure the level of miR-206 in serum specimens from oral cancer cases and control individuals. Chi-square test was performed to analyse the correlation between miR-206 level and clinicopathological parameters of the cases. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constituted to assess diagnostic accuracy of miR-206 in oral cancer. Serum miR-206 level in oral cancer patients was significantly lower than that in control individuals ( P ?.001). miR-206 expression was obviously related to T classification ( P =?.033), TNM stage ( P =?.008) and lymph node metastasis ( P =?.028). The area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC curve was 0.846 (95% CI?=?0.797-0.896, P ?.001) with a specificity of 72.7% and a sensitivity of 81.2%. It revealed that miR-206 might be a non-invasive indicator in differentiating oral cancer cases from control individuals. Down-regulation of miR-206 is related to the development of oral cancer. Serum miR-206 might be an effective indicator for early detection of oral cancer.