The Diagnostic and Prognostic Values of MicroRNA-196a in Cancer

Abstract BackgroundmicroRNA-196a (miR-196a) was previously reported to be upregulated in cancers, and has the diagnostic and prognostic values in cancers. Whereas, the conclusion was still unclear according to the published data. To assess such a role of miR-196a in cancers, this study was conducted based on published data. MethodsTo identify the relevant published data, we searched articles in databases and then the relevant data was extracted to assess the correlation between miR-196a expression and diagnosis and survival for cancer patients, all data was analysis with the statistical software STATA. ResultsThe pooled results showed that miR-196a was a valuable diagnostic biomarker in cancer (AUC=0.87, 95%CI: 0.84-0.90; sensitivity=0.73, 95%CI:0.64-0.81; specificity=0.90, 95%CI:0.81-0.95), which was consistent with the data from databases (breast cancer: miR-196a-3p: AUC=0.77, 95%CI: 0.74-0.79; miR-196a-5p: AUC=0.71, 95%CI: 0.66-0.75; pancreatic cancer: miR-196a-3p: AUC=0.80, 95%CI: 0.73-0.87; miR-196a-5p: AUC=0.61, 95%CI:0.51-0.71). In addition, miR-196a in tissues was an unfavorable survival prognosis biomarker (HR=2.54, 95%CI: 1.79-3.61, PHeterogeneity =0.000, I2=75.8%) and serum or plasma (HR=4.06, 95%CI: 2.67-6.18, PHeterogeneity =0.668, I2=0%), which was consistent with the data from databases (adrenocortical carcinoma: HR=5.70; esophageal carcinoma: HR=1.93; brain lower grade glioma: HR=2.91; GSE40267: HR=2.47, 95%CI: 1.2-5.07; TCGA: HR=1.82, 95%CI: 1.21-2.74; GSE19783: HR=4.24, 95%CI:1-18.06). ConclusionOur results demonstrated that miR-196a acts as a tumor suppressor with prognostic and diagnostic values for cancer.