Clinical Effectiveness of miR-760 to Distinguish Benign and Malignant Pulmonary Nodules on the Basis of Low-Dose Spiral CT Imaging

BACKGROUND: The differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules is a key problem in clinical diagnosis. Low-dose spiral CT (LDCT) is a commonly used screening method, but it has the limitations of insufficient specificity. There is an urgent need for molecular markers to assist diagnosis. METHODS: A total of 240 patients with pulmonary nodules were enrolled in this study. The expression of serum miR-760 was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the potential of miR-760 in the diagnosis of lung cancer, and logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate its significance in the risk assessment of lung cancer. Target genes were screened by bioinformatics, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed, and hub genes were screened. RESULTS: The expression of miR-760 in the lung cancer group was significantly lower than that in the benign group (P < 0.001). Its AUC for differentiating benign and malignant was 0.867. When LDCT combined with miR-760, the area under the curve (AUC) increased to 0.955. Logistic regression analysis showed that miR-760 was a risk factor for lung cancer incidence. PPI network analysis screened 10 hub genes (HMGCR, INSR, CDK6, etc.), which were enriched in cancer related pathways such as HIF-1 and actin cytoskeleton. CONCLUSIONS: miR-760 combined with LDCT can significantly improve the differentiation ability of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules, and its mechanism may activate tumor-related signaling pathways by targeting the core genes of PPI network. This study provides a new combination of molecular markers and mechanistic clues for the accurate diagnosis of pulmonary nodules.