miR-124 Functions as A Marker in Diagnosing Colorectal Cancer

Abstract Background: MicroRNA-124 (miR-124) regulates cell growth, angiogenesis, invasion, and apoptosis of many human tumors. Our objective was to evaluate the levels of miR-124 in serum samples of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients to explore whether miR-124 in serum can be used as a biomarker for the detection of CRC.Methods: Serum miR-124 level was measured in 85 patients with CRC and 60 healthy control subjects using reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The correlations between miR-124 levels and clinicopathologic factors were analyzed. Diagnostic performance of serum miR-124 level was calculated by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results: The expression level of miR-124 in serum samples was significantly lower in CRC patients than in healthy controls (P<0.001). A positive correlation between miR-124 level and tumor size (P=0.010), invasion depth (P=0.021), lymph node metastasis (P=0.015), and TNM stage (P=0.004) was observed. The serum miR-124 yielded an AUC (areas under the ROC curve) of 0.832 with a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 81.7%, and the optimal cutoff point of miR-124 was 1.61.Conclusions: Serum miR-124 may have a potential as a novel biomarker for the detection of CRC.