Abstract
Background This study aimed to investigate the effect of combination of plasma miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 on early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (PC).Methods In our study, the plasma was isolated from patients with PC and healthy individuals, respectively. The expressions of miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 were detected by qRT-PCR. Moreover, the level of carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) was measured by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) assay. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of miR-181b, miR-196a, miR-210 and CA199, as well as the combination of thses miRNAs in early PC patients and healthy individuals.Results The expressions of miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 were significantly upregulated in PC patients. In addition, the level of CA199 was also significantly upregulated in the plasma of PC patients. The expressions of miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 were closely associated with lymph nodes metastasis, clinical stage and vascular invasion, but had no correlation with the patient's age, gender and tumor size. Moreover, miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 have lower AUC than CA199 in PC patients. The combinations miR-181b + miR-196a, miR-181b + miR-210, miR-196a + miR-210 also have lower AUC than CA199 in PC patients. It is worth noting that the combinations miR-181b + miR-196a + miR-210 have higher AUC than CA199 in PC.Conclusions Our study demonstrated that the combination of plasma miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210 had good value for PC early diagnosis.