miRNA-192, miRNA-21 and miRNA-200: new pancreatic cancer markers in diabetic patients?]

Newly-onset diabetes mellitus (DM) in middle-aged and older people may be an early symptom of pancreatic cancer (PC). However, sensitive markers for PC are still missing. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in a cell response regulation. Significant changes in miRNA expressions were observed in cancers. Our goal was to compare expressions of selected miRNAs in patients with PC, DM and controls.We enrolled 74 patients with PC (42/32, with/without DM), 29 type 2 diabetic patients and 17 controls. MicroRNA was determined in serum of all examined subjects. In 9 patients with PC the tumor was resected subsequently and after 3 months the measurements were repeated. We analyzed the expressions of 8 miRNAs that we had identified in a previous pilot study (miR-21, miR-30, miR-191, miR-192, miR-196, miR-200, miR-423, miR-454).MicroRNA expressions were significantly higher in patients with PC than in DM and controls: miR-192: 1.6 (1.2 to 2.0) vs 0.3 (0.2-0.4) vs 0.3 (0.2 to 0.5), p < 0.00001; miR-21: 1.4 (1.2-1.7) vs 0.3 (0.2 to 0.5) vs 0.5 (from 0.4 to 0.7), p < 0.00001, miR-200: 1.6 (1.1 to 2.3) vs 0.3 (0.3-0.4) vs 0.3 (0.2 to 0.4), p < 0.00001. No difference was observed between DM and controls, as well as between diabetic and non-diabetic patients within the PC group. There were no significant differences in miRNA expressions in 9 patients after pancreatic surgery. But there were significant interindividual differences.Our data shows that miR-21, miR-192 and miR-200 could be used as new diagnostic markers for pancreatic cancer. A dynamics of these miRNAs could serve as a prognostic marker in patients after cancer removal. Futher prospective studies with newly-onset diabetic patients with no signs of malignancy will be needed to validate if suggested miRNAs could be used as early markers as well.