Circulating tumor suppressor microRNAs as minimally invasive biomarkers for early detection of colorectal cancer.

Abstract

103 Background: Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major clinical challenge contributing significantly to cancer-related mortality worldwide. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that showed stability in plasma. The current was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic significance of plasma-derived tumor suppressor miRNAs that may be used as minimally invasive biomarkers for early detection of CRC. Methods: The present study recruited 75 participants, including CRC patients (n = 50) and healthy controls (n = 25), from a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, after institutional ethical approval. With written informed consent from each participant, peripheral blood was collected in EDTA tubes, and plasma was isolated for total RNA extraction. Complementary DNA was synthesized, and expression of selected tumor suppressor miRNAs was quantified using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) in accordance with MIQE-compliant procedures. Relative expression was calculated using the 2⁻ ΔΔCt method. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Associations with clinicopathological parameters were analyzed using Spearman correlation. Results: Circulating tumor suppressor miRNAs were significantly downregulated in CRC patients compared with healthy controls ( p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis demonstrated high diagnostic performance, yielding 97.5% sensitivity and 94% specificity. Spearman correlation analysis showed no significant association between miRNA expression and clinicopathological parameters, indicating expression consistency across CRC clinical characteristics. Conclusions: Circulating tumor suppressor miRNAs demonstrate high diagnostic performance and may serve as reliable minimally invasive biomarkers for early detection of colorectal cancer. Validation studies in larger, multicenter cohorts are required to support clinical translation.