A Panel of Circulating Non-coding RNAs in the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Therapy in Egyptian Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract 1) Background: Non coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have recently been identified to play a pivotal role in many diseases including breast cancer (BC). This study aims to investigate the relative quantification of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19, microRNA (miR) 675-5p, 675-3p and miR-let 7 in BC patients.2) Methods: The study was performed on three groups, group 1; 30 non-intervened BC female patients about to undergo breast surgery, group 2; 30 postoperative female BC patients about to receive adjuvant anthracycline chemotherapy and group 3; 30 apparently healthy female volunteers as the control group. Plasma samples were drawn before and after the intervention in groups 1 and 2, with a single sample drawn from group 3. The relative quantification levels were compared with healthy control subjects and were related with the clinicopathological statuses of these patients.3) Results: There was a statistically significant increase in H19, miR-675-5p, miR-675-3p and miR-let 7 in the non-intervened BC patients when compared to the control group. Surgery resulted in a significant reduction in all four ncRNAs under investigation. Chemotherapy resulted in a significant increase in the level of miR-let 7. The assay discriminated normal from BC where the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) of miR-675-3p showed the maximal AUC-ROC of 1.000. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity was also 100% when CA 15-3 and H19 were combined.4) Conclusion: The results indicate that the panel of ncRNAs can all potentially act as novel biomarkers whether alone or combined in the diagnosis of BC.