Early Postoperative Circulating miR-483-5p Is a Prognosis Marker for Adrenocortical Cancer

• Main Authors: Maurine Oreglia, Silviu Sbiera, Martin Fassnacht, Laurent Guyon, Josiane Denis, Justine Cristante, Olivier Chabre, Nadia Cherradi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: adrenocortical carcinoma; biomarker; circulating microrna; mir-483-5p; early prognosis; recurrence
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/12/3/724

We have previously identified serum miR-483-5p as a preoperative diagnosis and prognosis biomarker for adrenocortical cancer (ACC). Here, we aimed to determine whether circulating miR-483-5p levels measured 3 months post-operatively distinguished patients with good prognosis (no recurrence for at least 3 years; NR3yrs) from patients with poor prognosis (recurrence or death within 3 years after surgery; R &lt; 3yrs). We conducted a single-center retrospective analysis using sera from 48 patients with ACC that were initially non-metastatic and treated by surgery. Sera sampled within 3 months after surgery were available in 26 patients. MiR-483-5p absolute circulating levels were measured using quantitative PCR. Thirteen patients showed a recurrence before 3 years (=R &lt; 3yrs). Thirteen patients showed no recurrence within 3 years, including 11 patients with a follow-up longer than 3 years (=NR3yrs). Serum miR-483-5p levels were higher in R &lt; 3yrs than in NR3yrs: 1,541,990 &#177; 428,377 copies/mL vs. 388,457 &#177; 62,169 copies/mL (<i>p</i> = 0.002). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that a value of 752,898 copies/mL distinguished R &lt; 3yrs from NR3yrs with 61.5% sensitivity (CI 31.6&#8722;86.1) and 100% specificity (CI 71.5&#8722;100) with an area under the curve of 0.853. Patients with a value below this threshold had a significantly longer recurrence-free and overall survival. In multivariate analysis, miR-483-5p provided the single best prognostic value for recurrence-free survival (RFS) (hazard ratio (HR) for recurrence 5.98, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.011) but not for overall survival. Our study suggests that serum miR-483-5p is a potent early post-operative biomarker for ACC prognosis that might be a better predictor of RFS than currently used markers.