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. 2015 Jun 30;113(1):76-82.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2015.111. Epub 2015 Jun 9.

Circulating microRNAs as prognostic therapy biomarkers in head and neck cancer patients

I Summerer  1 , K Unger  2 , H Braselmann  1 , L Schuettrumpf  3 , C Maihoefer  3 , P Baumeister  4 , T Kirchner  5 , M Niyazi  3 , E Sage  6 , H M Specht  6 , G Multhoff  7 , S Moertl  8 , C Belka  3 , H Zitzelsberger  2
Affiliations

Circulating microRNAs as prognostic therapy biomarkers in head and neck cancer patients

I Summerer et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: The prediction of therapy response in head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) requires biomarkers, which are also a prerequisite for personalised therapy concepts. The current study aimed to identify therapy-responsive microRNAs (miRNAs) in the circulation that can serve as minimally invasive prognostic markers for HNSCC patients undergoing radiotherapy.

Methods: We screened plasma miRNAs in a discovery cohort of HNSCC patients before therapy and after treatment. We further compared the plasma miRNAs of the patients to age- and sex-matched healthy controls. All miRNAs identified as biomarker candidates were then confirmed in an independent validation cohort of HNSCC patients and tested for correlation with the clinical outcome.

Results: We identified a signature of eight plasma miRNAs that differentiated significantly (P=0.003) between HNSCC patients and healthy donors. MiR-186-5p demonstrated the highest sensitivity and specificity to classify HNSCC patients and healthy individuals. All therapy-responsive and patient-specific miRNAs in plasma were also detectable in tumour tissues derived from the same patients. High expression of miR-142-3p, miR-186-5p, miR-195-5p, miR-374b-5p and miR-574-3p in the plasma correlated with worse prognosis.

Conclusions: Circulating miR-142-3p, miR-186-5p, miR-195-5p, miR-374b-5p and miR-574-3p represent the most promising markers for prognosis and therapy monitoring in the plasma of HNSCC patients. We found strong evidence that the circulating therapy-responsive miRNAs are tumour related and were able to validate them in an independent cohort of HNSCC patients.

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