Abstract:
Objective To investigate the role of serum exosomal miRNAs in combination with tumor markers in the diagnosis of patients with gastric cancer.
Methods A total of 46 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer in The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from April 2020 to April 2021 were selected as the gastric cancer group, and 20 healthy individuals who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected as the control group. Serum samples from the two groups were collected, serum exosomal miRNAs were sequenced, and differentially expressed miRNAs were screened and verified. Spearman correlation analysis was performed between the verified miRNAs expression level, tumor marker value, and diagnosis of gastric cancer. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the value of exosomal miRNAs, CA72-4, and their combination in the diagnosis of gastric cancer.
Results A total of 376 differentially expressed miRNAs were screened from serum exosomes of the two groups. After qRT-PCR verification, only 4 miRNAs were found to be statistically significant. ROC curve was used to determine the efficacy of miRNAs in the diagnosis of gastric cancer. The areas under the curve (AUC) for miR-1323, miR-26a-5p, miR-202-3p, and miR-96-5p were 0.908, 0.815, 0.570, and 0.547, respectively, the sensitivities were 71.7%, 67.4%, 30.4%, and 19.6%, respectively, and the specificities were 100%, 85.0%, 90.0%, and 100%, respectively. Spearman correlation analysis showed that miR-26a-5p, miR-1323, and CA72-4 correlated positively with the diagnosis of gastric cancer. ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC for the combined diagnosis of miR-26a-5p, miR-1323, and CA72-4 was 0.967, which is higher than the diagnostic efficiency of the three alone, and their sensitivity and specificity were 87.0% and 100%, respectively.
Conclusions Combined detection of the expression levels of serum exosomal miR-26a-5p, miR-1323, and CA72-4 improves the diagnosis of gastric cancer.