A serum three-microRNA panel: promising biomarkers for renal cell carcinoma screening

Aim: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) screening is helpful to improve the prognosis of patients. However, the existing RCC detection methods are not suitable for large-scale screening. Serum microRNAs (miRNAs) is expected to be a convenient, economical, and non-invasive screening tool for RCC. This study aimed to identify relevant serum miRNAs as diagnostic markers for RCC. Methods: This research included 112 patients with RCC and 112 healthy control individuals, carried out in three distinct phases. The objective was to identify serum miRNAs suitable for RCC diagnosis using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Additionally, bioinformatics analyses were performed to predict target genes and provide functional annotations. Results: Compared with healthy controls, patients with RCC highly expressed miR-221-3p and lowly expressed miR-124-3p, let-7b-5p, miR-30a-5p, and miR-302d-3p. After multiple rounds of combination screening, the combination of miR-124-3p, miR-221-3p, and let-7b-5p showed good diagnostic predictability. The diagnostic panel exhibited a 0.838 area under curve (AUC), achieving 75.00% sensitivity and 77.68% specificity. Conclusion: Our analysis demonstrates that combining miR-124-3p, let-7b-5p, and miR-221-3p forms a non-invasive, economical, and remarkably effective diagnostic indicator for patients with renal cell carcinoma.