Evaluation of expression level of circulating miR-34a and miR-375 in the plasma of gastric cancer patients in Guilan province

Gastric cancer is the sixth most frequent malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world with poor survival rate. Early detection may increase patient’s survival and reduce mortality. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which function as negative regulators of genes expression in post-transcriptional level. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of miR-34a and miR-375 in the plasma of gastric cancer patients in Guilan province.Methods and materials: In this study, 25 gastric cancer patients and 25 healthy individuals in Guilan province during 2018-2019 were enrolled. The expression of miR-34a and miR-375 was evaluated in plasma of patients with Gastric cancer and healthy individuals by Q-RT-PCR method. The correlation between their expression and patient’s clinicopathological characteristics was also investigated. ROC curve analysis of the miRNAs was performed.

There was no significant difference in the plasma level of miR-34a and miR-375 in gastric cancer patients compared to control. There was no significant difference between the the plasma level of miR-34a and miR-375 and clinicopathological features of patients. Area under the curve (AUC) value of ROC analysis for miR-34a was 0.56±0.08 (P=0.42). Area under the curve (AUC) value of ROC analysis for miR-375 was 0.62±0.08 (P=0.14).

Our results suggested that miR-34a and miR-375 probably don’t be appropriate biomarkers for diagnosis of gastric cancer in Guilan province.