Identification of a serum microRNA expression signature for detection of lung cancer, involving miR-23b, miR-221, miR-148b and miR-423-3p

•Serum miRNAs for detection of lung cancer were screened by microarray.•Ten miRNAs were selected as probable biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis.•A combination of 4 miRNAs has high power for lung cancer discrimination. Serum mircoRNAs (miRNAs), with their noticeable stability and unique expression pattern in patients with various diseases, are powerful novel non-invasive biomarkers for cancer detection. The objective of this study was to identify specific serum miRNAs as potential diagnostic markers for detection of lung cancer. The expression of serum miRNA from treatment-naive lung cancer patients (LC), benign pulmonary disease patients (PD) and healthy controls (HC) were examined by PCR array. The study was divided into two phases: the biomarker-screening phase and the biomarker-validation phase. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics curve analyses were used to identify differentially expressed miRNA signatures that could distinguish LC from PD and HC. In addition, target genes of miRNAs were predicted using bioinformatic assays. Ten miRNAs (let-7f, miR-126-3p, miR-148b, miR-151-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-221, miR-23b, miR-26a, miR-27b, and miR-423-3p) in LC were significantly increased compared to those in PD and HC in biomarker-validation phase (P