Plasma microRNAs as potential new biomarkers for early detection of early gastric cancer

Figure 1 Overview of the study design. EGC: Early gastric cancer; AGC: Advanced gastric cancer; BG: Benign gastritis; Control-1: Helicobacter pylori-negative gastritis; Control-2: Helicobacter pylori-positive atrophic gastritis; RT-qPCR: Reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Figure 2 Expression of the four identified microRNAs between the control (Control-1 + Control-2) and cancer (early gastric cancer + advanced gastric cancer) groups. To assess the diagnostic utility of miR-7641, miR-425-5p, miR-1180-3p and miR-122-5p, a linear combination of the risk score of the four miRNAs weighted by the regression coefficient was used to calculate a risk score factor (RSF) for the four-microRNA panel for each subject. The RSF was calculated as follows: RSF = 1.569 × miR-7641 + 1.312 × miR-425-5p + 1.852 × miR-1180-3p + 1.322 × miR-122-5p. Area under curve = 0.799, 95% confidence interval: 0.691-0.908, P < 0.001. AUC: Area under curve; CI: Confidence interval; miRNA: MicroRNA.

Figure 3 Expression of the four identified microRNAs between the control (Control-1 + Control-2) and early gastric cancer groups. To assess the diagnostic utility of miR-425-5p, miR-24-3p, miR-1180-3p and miR-122-5p, a linear combination of the risk score of the four microRNAs (miRNAs) weighted by the regression coefficient was used to calculate a risk score factor (RSF) for the four-miRNA panel for each subject. The RSF was calculated as follows: RSF = 2.117 × miR-425-5p + 2.234 × miR-24-3p + 2.005 × miR-1180-3p + 1.792 × miR-122-5p. Area under curve = 0.829, 95% confidence interval: 0.657-1.000, P = 0.001. AUC: Area under curve; CI: Confidence interval; miRNA: MicroRNA; EGC: Early gastric cancer.

Figure 4 Expression of the two microRNAs between the advanced and early gastric cancer groups. The expression of miR-24-3p in the early gastric cancer (EGC) group was significantly lower than that in the advanced gastric cancer (AGC) [area under curve (AUC) = 0.782, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.571-0.993, P = 0.029] group. The expression of miR-4632-5p in the EGC group was significantly higher than that in the AGC (AUC = 0.791, 95%CI: 0.574-1.000, P = 0.024) group. AUC: Area under curve; CI: Confidence interval; miRNA: MicroRNA.