Extracellular vesicles miR-210 as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and survival prediction of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients

• Main Authors: Bambi, F. (Author), Bigagli, E. (Author), Di Stadio, A. (Author), Gallo, O. (Author), Locatello, L.G (Author), Luceri, C. (Author), Maggiore, G. (Author), Valdarnini, F. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2021
• Subjects: biomarkers; diagnosis and prognosis; extracellular vesicles; miRNA; oral cancer
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Background: The identification of early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an unmet clinical need. We hypothesized that extracellular vesicles miR-210 expression (EV-miR-210) could be a potential biomarker for OSCC diagnosis and follow-up. Methods: The expression of EV-miR-210 was measured in the plasma of OSCC patients (n = 30) and compared to that of controls (n = 14). Results: The median EV-miR-210 expression was significantly higher in OSCC patients compared to controls who had often, undetectable levels (p < 0.0001). We performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for discriminating OSCC cases from controls. EV-miR-210 yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.9513 with sensitivity 92.3% and specificity 86.6%. Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that high EV-miR-210 expression was associated with worse 3 years’ survival (p < 0.05). Cox regression hazard model indicated that high EV-miR-210, G2, and G3 grading and pathological nodal status (pN)>1 were independent predictors of worse survival in OSCC patients. Conclusion: These preliminary data suggest that EV-mir-210 may be a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in OSCC. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.