Bladder cancer diagnosis with a four-miRNA panel in serum

Background: Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies. Due to the disadvantage of existing bladder cancer diagnostic tools, miRNAs hold promise as new diagnostic markers. Materials & methods: A total of 224 participants were involved in this three-cohort trial. A total of 15 candidate miRNAs were selected, and miRNAs with diagnostic ability were screened out with quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Diagnostic capability was ascertained by the receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve. Bioinformatics analysis was constructed for target gene prediction and functional annotation. Results: Six candidate miRNAs showed significantly different expression between bladder cancer patients and normal controls, and the final diagnostic panel comprised miR-181b-5p, miR-183-5p, miR-199-5p and miR-221-3p. Conclusion: This four-miRNA panel could represent a stable biomarker for bladder cancer diagnosis.