Circulating Biomarkers to Identify Thyroid Cancer
Condition: Thyroid Cancer; Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; Benign Thyroid Tumor
MeSH terms: Thyroid Neoplasms; Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; Thyroid Diseases
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      This study aimed to identify the potential circulating biomarkers of protein, mRNAs, and long
      non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) to diﬀerentiate the papillary thyroid cancers from benign thyroid
      tumors. Methods: The study population of 100 patients was classified into identification (10
      patients with papillary thyroid cancers and 10 patients with benign thyroid tumors) and
      validation groups (45 patients with papillary thyroid cancers and 35 patients with benign
      thyroid tumors). The Sengenics Immunome Protein Array combined data mining approach using the
      Open Targets Platform was used to identify the putative protein biomarkers, and their
      expression validated using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Next-generation sequencing
      by Illumina HiSeq was used for the detection of dysregulated mRNAs and lncRNAs. The website
      Timer v2.0 helped identify the putative mRNA biomarkers, which were significantly
      over-expressed in papillary thyroid cancers than in adjacent normal thyroid tissue. The mRNA
      and lncRNAs biomarker expression was validated by a real-time polymerase chain reaction.
    

Detailed description: 
      Novel biomarkers identification from liquid biopsy samples is in great demand for the
      diagnosis for malignant diseases. Generally, blood sampling is less invasive and could be
      carried out repeatedly. In addition to protein markers, circulating nucleic acids are
      promising sources of cancer biomarkers , since circulating nucleic acids provide information
      on the genome or gene expression , and harbor wealth of health and disease status
      information. The long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are the transcripts longer than 200
      nucleotides in length and act as prominent regulators of gene expression. Accumulating
      evidence demonstrated the involvement of lncRNA dysregulation in a variety of cancers, and
      their expression is associated with cancer development and metastasis. This study was
      designed to identify the potential protein and RNA biomarkers in the blood for diﬀerentiating
      a malignant thyroid tumor from a benign thyroid nodule. In this study, only patients with
      papillary thyroid carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer, were chosen for
      comparison with those with benign thyroid tumors to simplify the comparison.
    

Intervention name(s): Identification group; Validation group
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): papillary thyroid cancers (n=10) and benign thyroid tumors (n=10); papillary thyroid cancers (n=45) and benign thyroid tumors (n=35)
Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Retrospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        The study population was assigned to identification (10 patients with papillary thyroid
        cancers and 10 patients with benign thyroid tumors) and validation groups (45 patients with
        papillary thyroid cancers and 35 patients with benign thyroid tumors). Before surgery, 2 mL
        blood samples were drawn from an elbow vein of patients into EDTA tubes (BD Vacutainer) for
        RNA analysis, and 8 mL into SST™II advance tubes (BD Vacutainer) for protein analysis.