microRNA-101 Represents an Innovative Bio-Marker in Oral Cancer Detection

Abstract Background: It had been suggested that microRNA-101 (miR-101) was involved in carcinogenesis and progression of various human tumors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of miR-101 in oral cancer.Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) was used to detect the serum mRNA level of miR-101 in 130 oral cancer cases and 82 healthy individuals. The association of miR-101 with clinical characteristics of oral cancer patients was estimated using chi-square test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic significance of miR-101 in oral cancer.Results: Compared with healthy controls, serum miR-101 level was significantly down-regulated in oral cancer patients (P<0.001). Furthermore, low expression of miR-101 was closely associated with histological grade (P=0.037), TNM stage (P=0.018) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.023). ROC curve analysis indicated that serum miR-101 could effectively distinguish oral cancer patients from healthy controls with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.878 (95%CI=0.834-0.922, P<0.001). The cutoff level of miR-101 expression for oral cancer diagnosis was 1.46, with the sensitivity of 82.9% and the specificity of 74.6%.Conclusions: Decreased expression of miR-101 is correlated with the aggressive progression of oral cancer. Serum miR-101 may be a promising bio-marker for early diagnosis of oral cancer.