Abstract 159: Prognostic and diagnostic significance of microRNA in bladder cancer
Authors: Sutton Boyd, Nabil K. Bissada, Mohamed A. Ghoneim, Thomas E. Keane, Elizabeth Fowler, Philip Sobolesky, Daynna J. Wolff, Dennis K. Watson, Omar Moussa
Journal: Cancer Research (2011)

Abstract Purpose: Recently the role of microRNA (miRNA) in the development and progression of cancer including genitourinary tumors, and lymphomas to name a few have illustrated specific miRNA's to be dysregulated. Consequently miRNA's are currently being investigated as potential diagnostic and prognostic markers in neoplastic diseases. Because miRNA's are highly conserved they are promising as a potential biomarker that may be acquired by non-invasive means. This study investigated the presence of miR-21, miR-17-5p, miR-155, miR-26, miR-126, and miR-182 in bladder cancer tumor and tumor normal tissue specimens. We further investigated the presence of miR-21, miR-17-5p and miR-155 in urine sediment of bladder cancer patients. Materials and Methods: quantitative Real time (RT-PCR) analysis was utilized for the detection of the precursors of miR-21, miR-17-5p, miR-155, miR-26, miR-126, and miR-182 in 23 RNA samples obtained from with bladder cancer tissue specimens. The relative expression values were compared to pooled matched non-tumor tissue. The presence of precursors of miRNA miR-21, miR-17-5p and miR-155 were also tested in 104 urine specimens from patients with active disease following positive cystoscopy (n=57) and patients previously diagnosed and treated for bladder cancer (n=34) with negative cystoscopic examination, patients with non-bladder cancer urological disease (n=6) and 7 healthy volunteers. Results: The precursors of the oncogenic miRNA miR-21, miR-155, and miR-26 were up-regulated in the early grades and stages of the disease and the levels of expression are maintained in high grades and late disease stage. Interestingly, high levels of miR-17-5p were detected in higher grades and stages of bladder cancer and correlated with poor long term survival. Our data also indicated that the miR-126 is down-regulated in bladder cancer specimens compared to the non-tumor tissues. Our preliminary data have also shown that high levels of the precursors of miR-21, miR-17-5p and miR-155 can be detected in urine sediment collected from patients with active disease in higher levels compared to cytoscopy negative patients, patients with non-malignant urological diseases and healthy controls. Conclusion: Our data have shown that miRNA detection in tissue and urine specimens in patients with bladder cancer has a promising prognostic and diagnostic significance and this preliminary data warranting further investigation to look at miRNA's as potential biomarkers. Illustrating the presence of miRNA in urine sediment of bladder cancer patients may prove useful in noninvasive evaluation of bladder cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 159. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-159