1. Circulating microRNAs as biomarkers to assist the management of the malignant germ-cell-tumour subtype choriocarcinoma
- Author
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James Nicholson, Matthew J. Murray, Stephen Smith, Lorena Verduci, Dawn Ward, Nicholas Coleman, Cinzia G. Scarpini, Murray, Matthew [0000-0002-4480-1147], Smith, Stephen [0000-0001-7744-3238], Scarpini, Cinzia [0000-0003-4730-5197], Coleman, Nicholas [0000-0002-5374-739X], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Oncology ,Original article ,Cancer Research ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,lcsh:RC254-282 ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Mediastinal ,Serum hcg ,Internal medicine ,microRNA ,Human-chorionic-gonadotrophin ,medicine ,TaqMan ,Choriocarcinoma ,miRNA ,Chemotherapy ,business.industry ,Malignant Germ Cell ,lcsh:Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens ,Serum samples ,medicine.disease ,C19MC ,Circulating MicroRNA ,030104 developmental biology ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Germ-cell-tumour ,business - Abstract
Highlights • Current biomarkers have limited utility for management of germ-cell-tumours. • Limitations include secretion restricted to specific subtypes and long half-life. • Limitations can make interpretation and clinical decision-making challenging. • Circulating microRNAs show promise for management of these tumours. • We identify specific circulating microRNAs for the choriocarcinoma subtype., Germ-cell-tumours (GCTs) are heterogeneous and management is complex. The current conventional biomarkers, alpha-fetoprotein and human-chorionic-gonadotropin (HCG), have limited utility for diagnosis/follow-up as secretion is restricted to specific malignant-GCT subtypes and long half-life can make interpretation and clinical decision-making challenging. We sought to identify circulating microRNAs that reflected choriocarcinoma disease activity more accurately than HCG in a metastatic primary mediastinal nonseminomatous-GCT (PMNSGCT) case with elevated diagnostic serum HCG (>250,000 U/L), consistent with pure choriocarcinoma. We undertook comprehensive microRNA profiling (n = 754 microRNAs) using two 384-well TaqMan Low-Density-Array cards in 16 serum samples; 10 from PMNSGCT diagnosis/follow-up and six controls. Key findings underwent confirmatory qRT-PCR. We identified a serum panel of choriocarcinoma-specific ‘chromosome-19-microRNA-cluster’ (C19MC) microRNAs that were highly elevated at diagnosis but fell rapidly on treatment and normalised before the second full chemotherapy course. We also re-confirmed serum elevation of the previously identified malignant-GCT marker miR-371a-3p at diagnosis. These circulating microRNA markers reflected choriocarcinoma disease activity more accurately than serum HCG and real-time knowledge would have assisted clinical decision-making. With further study, these microRNA markers will facilitate future management of such patients and are likely to result in improved outcomes.
- Published
- 2021