Circulating Cell-Free miR-375 as Surrogate Marker of Tumor Burden in Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer with neuroendocrine differentiation. There is an unmet need for MCC-specific blood-based surrogate biomarkers of tumor burden; circulating cell-free miRNA may serve this purpose.

Experimental design

Expression of miR-375 was quantified in 24 MCC and 23 non-MCC cell lines, 67 MCC and 58 non-MCC tumor tissues, sera of 2 preclinical MCC models, and sera of 109 patients with MCC and 30 healthy controls by nCounter human-v2-miRNA expression or miR-375-specific real-time PCR assays. The patients' sera consisted of two retrospective (discovery and training) and two prospective (validation) cohorts.

Results

miR-375 expression was high in MCC cell lines and tissues compared with non-MCCs. It was readily detected

SUBMITTER: Fan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6352975 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature