Analysis of MicroRNAs in Pancreatic Fine-Needle Aspirates Can Classify Benign and Malignant Tissues

cules that are involved in the regulation of many cellu-lar processes, including those related to human can-cers. The aim of this study was to determine, as a proof of principle, whether specific candidate miRNAs could be detected in fine-needle aspirate (FNA) biopsies of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and could accurately differentiatemalignant frombenign pancre-atic tissues. METHODS: We used TaqMan ® assays to quantify miRNA levels in FNA samples collected in RNARetain (n 16) and compared the results with a training set consisting of frozenmicrodissected pancreatic samples (n 20). RESULTS: Quantitative reverse-transcription PCR anal-ysis confirmed thatmiRNA levels are affected in PDAC FNAs and correlate well with the changes observed i