altered mir-223 expression in sputum for diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer

Background: diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) at an early stage is a daunting challenge due to the deficiency of specific noninvasive markers. micrornas (mirnas) play important roles in the initiation and progression of nsclc. measuring mirna expression levels could provide a potential approach for the diagnosis of nsclc. our goals were to examine mir-223, mir-212, mir-192, mir-3074, snord33 and snord37 expression levels in tissue and sputum of nsclc patients and cancer free subjects for molecular diagnosis of nsclc. methods: relative expressions of mir-223, mir-212, mir-192, mir-3074, snord33 and snord37 were examined with quantitative real-time rt-pcr assay in tissue and sputum obtained from 17 nsclc patients and 17 controls. results: mir-3074 was upregulated in tissue samples of nsclc patients compared with control group. mir-223 was upregulated, mir-212 and snord37 were downergulated in sputum samples of patients compared with controls. mir-223 quantification produced 82% sensitivity and 95% specificity with areas under the roc curve at 0.90 in detection of nsclc. conclusion: mir-223 clearly discriminated cancer patients from cancer-free subjects and our results suggest that mir-223 could be a diagnostic useful biomarker. the measurement of altered mirna expression in sputum samples manifested the potential noninvasive approach for detection of lung cancer.