MiR-221 represents an innovative bio-marker in cervical carcinoma detection

Abstract Background MiR-221 has been identified to play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression. In the present study, we aimed at to investigate the expression pattern of serum miR-221 and evaluate its diagnostic value in cervical cancer. Methods Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to measure the expression pattern of miR-221 in cervical cancer patients and healthy controls. The association of miR-221 with clinicopathological data was analyzed with χ2 test. Then receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was built to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum miR-221 by calculating the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results The results indicated that the miR-221 expression level was statistically elevated in cervical cancer patients compared with healthy individuals. The increased miR-221 expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.026) and FIGO stage (P = 0.028). ROC curve suggested that serum miR-221 had a high diagnostic value in differentiating cervical cancer patients from healthy controls with AUC of 0.932 (95%CI: 0.903–0.960) corresponding with sensitivity of 77.6% and specificity of 94.8%. Conclusions Taken together, the expression level of miR-221 is increased in cervical carcinoma and it may serve as a promoting bio-marker in the diagnosis of cervical cancer patients.