Study on serum miR-182 as a marker for diagnosis and prognosis of cervical cancer.

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is a common female malignancy, with a global incidence rate second only to breast cancer.

Objective: To propose a new idea for early treatment and auxiliary diagnosis of CC by exploring the diagnostic and prognostic implications of serum miR-182 in CC.

Methods: We enrolled 70 CC patients, 35 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) patients and 35 healthy controls (HCs), who visited The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College Hospital between January 2015 and April 2016. miR-182 expression was quantified by real-time quantitative PCR and compared among the three groups. The correlation of serum miR-182 expression with patients' clinical features was evaluated. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and the Kaplan-Meier method were used to evaluate the early diagnostic value and prognostic value of serum miR-182. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine serum miR-182 expression and its important role in predicting CC patients' prognosis.

Results: Serum miR-182 expression was determined to be 0.345 ± 0.094, 0.369 ± 0.076, and 0.586 ± 0.157 in CC patients, CIN patients, and HCs, respectively (P< 0.001). Serum miR-182 expression had an obvious association with lymph node metastasis and pathological differentiation (P< 0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of serum miR-182 was 0.709 (95% CI: 0.622-0.795), the critical value was 0.456, the sensitivity was 81.4%, and the specificity was 52.9%. CC patients were grouped as either the low- (miR-182 < 0.3) or high-level group (miR-182 ⩾ 0.03) based on serum miR-182 levels, and a Cox regression model of OS was established. Serum miR-182 expression was identified as a factor independently influencing CC patients' OS (P= 0.028); the death risk of the high-level group was 3.246 times that of the low-level group.

Conclusion: Serum miR-182 expression is not only a biomarker for early diagnosis of CC, but also one of the independent factors influencing the survival and prognosis of CC patients.