Predictive value of microRNA-10b expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in evaluating short- and long-term efficacy of chemotherapy for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Yun-Long Yang, Wei Wang,  Lu-Ping Xu

Abstract:

The expression profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and the role of microRNAs (miRs) in NSCLC remain unclear. Herein, the present study aims to investigate predictive value of miR-10b expression in PBMCs in evaluating short- and long-term efficacy of chemotherapy for NSCLC patients. A total of 194 advanced NSCLC patients were selected as the NSCLC group and 199 healthy individuals were recruited as a control group. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to determine the miR-10b expression in PBMCs. The patients with advanced NSCLC were treated with chemotherapy, and the relationship between miR-10b expression in PBMCs and the clinicopathological characteristics, clinical response to chemotherapy and prognosis were analyzed. The values of miR-10b in diagnosis and prediction of clinical response to chemotherapy before chemotherapy were detected by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the clinical response to chemotherapy by logistic regression analysis, and the risk factors of prognosis in NSCLC patients by Cox regression analysis. Compared with the control group, miR-10b in PBMCs was highly expressed in the NSCLC group. The area under the curve (AUC) of miR-10b expression in the diagnosis of NSCLC was 0.967, with sensitivity and specificity of 85.10% and 99.5%, respectively. MiR-10b expression was related to lymph node metastasis (LNM), distant metastasis, pathological types and differentiation. The AUC of miR-10b expression in the prognosis of advanced NSCLC was 0.793, with sensitivity and specificity of 75.20% and 76.62%, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that clinical response to chemotherapy was significantly influenced by miR-10b expression, distant metastasis and LNM. Cox regression analysis showed that the high miR-10b expression, smoking, LNM and distant metastasis were risk factors of prognosis for advanced NSCLC patients. The present study offers intriguing new perspectives based on evidence that miR-10b expression in PBMCs has predictive value for the tumor response to chemotherapy and prognosis for advanced NSCLC patients.