Clinical significance of blood-based miRNAs as diagnostic and prognostic nucleic acid markers in breast cancer: Comparative to conventional tumor markers.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in carcinogenesis and their expression in biological fluids offer great potential as nucleic acid markers for cancer detection and progression. Authors investigated the expression level of miRNAs (miRNA-21, miRNA-126, and miRNA-155) to evaluate their role as diagnostic and prognostic markers for breast cancer compared with other commonly used protein-based markers (CEA and CA15-3). Serum samples from patients with breast cancer (n = 96), patients with benign breast lesion (n = 47), and healthy individuals (n = 39) were enrolled for detection of miRNA expression levels and protein-based tumor markers using fluorescent real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.

Clinical Significance of Serum IL-12 Level in Patients with Early Breast Carcinoma and Its Correlation with Other Tumor Markers.

Aim: To investigate the diagnostic significance of Interleukin 12 (IL-12) in breast cancer (BC) and its correlation with other tumor markers including cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1), and MMP9/TIMP1 ratio.

Methods: Serum levels of IL-12, tumor markers, and hormone receptors were measured in 92 BC and 56 benign lesion patients versus 40 healthy subjects. Clinical stage, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, grade, and histological type were recorded.