Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of mortality with regard to gynaecological cancer. There is no effective biomarker and therefore prognosis is poor as the majority of cases are not diagnosed until advanced disease is present. MicroRNAs (miRs) are dysregulated in ovarian cancer tissue and are present in the circulation. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether circulating miRs from the miR-200 family served as potential candidate biomarkers for the early detection of EOC. Whole blood and ovarian tissue were collected from women with early (stage I/II, n=4), advanced EOC (stage III/IV, n=4), and women with benign ovarian masses (n=5). A panel of 5 miRs were studied in whole blood and ovarian tissue using Taqman RT-PCR miR assays. The expression of circulating miR-200a, miR-200b and miR-200c were upregulated (P<0.05) in ovarian cancer compared to controls, correlated with the stage of disease and reflected tissue expression. Despite a trend, there was no significant increase in the expression of miR-21 and miR-210 in the present study. In conclusion, the circulating miR-200 family may be promising candidate biomarkers for EOC that require validation in a larger study.
Keywords: biomarker; epithelial ovarian cancer; microRNA.