A three-miRNA signature as promising non-invasive diagnostic marker for gastric cancer

Despite the declining incidence of gastric cancer, mortality rate remains high due to late presentation. We aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of miRNA as a diagnostic marker for gastric cancer in the circulation. Plasma samples from 3 independent groups comprise 123 gastric cancer patients and 111 healthy controls for miRNA profiling from microarray screening. Microarray data showed that 25 miRNAs were upregulated in gastric cancer patients and 6 highly expressed miRNAs (miR-18a, miR-140-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-627, miR-629 and miR-652) were selected for validation. In an independent validation set, levels of miR-627, miR-629 and miR-652 were significantly higher in gastric cancer patients than healthy controls (P