Abstract
Background: Breast cancer (BC) represents one of the most lethal malignancies among women worldwide. MiRNAs play an important role in breast cancer diagnosis and progression. Inconsistent data about the expression level of miR-16 was reported in BC, thus this study aimed to evaluate the serum expression level of miR-16 and explore its association with the clinicopathological features in Egyptian breast cancer patients.
Methods: Expression levels of miR-16 in sera were estimated in 100 BC patients, 30 benign breast hyperplasia, and 30 healthy controls using Quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction, in addition to the determination of CA15.3 levels by ELISA.
Results: Mir-16 expression level was significantly overexpressed in BC patients compared to patients with benign hyperplasia and healthy control, and was found to be associated with increased risk of BC development. Further, the expression level of miR-16 had a superior diagnostic ability to detect BC. However, the combination of miR-16 with CA15.3 enhanced the efficacy of the latter.
Conclusion: The combination of miR-16 with CA15.3 might be used as potential non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers for breast cancer.