Abstract# 5388: MicroRNA based diagnostic assay for malignant mesothelioma

Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive pleural neoplasm, that is linked to environmental exposure particularly to asbestos. The identification of malignant pleural mesothelioma from other tumors in the lung pleura has significant clinical implications in the absence of good specific markers and there is an increasing need for accurate differential diagnosis of these tumors. In this study, we used microRNA expression for the identification of cancer tissue type and histology in the lung pleura. RNA was extracted from dozens of FFPE samples of mesothelioma, lung adenocarcinoma, and additional tumor types, using in house designed protocols that preserve the small RNA fraction. Initial profiling using microRNA microarrays containing about 900 microRNA probes identified potential microRNA biomarkers that differentiated mesothelioma from other tumor types in the lung pleura. A qRT-PCR assay was developed that …