MiR-139-5p is Increased in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Prostate Cancer

Background: Emerging evidence suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a causal role in cancer tumorigenesis. Aberrant expression of miRNA (miR)-139-5p has been observed in various types of cancers. The present study evaluated the relationship between miR-139-5p expression levels and prostate cancer (PCa), to assess the feasibility of using peripheral blood miR-139-5p as a potential non-invasive biomarker for PCa. Methods: Total RNA was extracted from peripheral whole blood samples from 45 PCa patients, 45 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients and 50 healthy controls (HC). The expression of miR-139-5p was assessed by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: MiR-139-5p in peripheral blood was significantly higher in PCa patients than in patients with BPH and HC individuals (PmiR-139-5p expression was observed to be associated with certain clinicopathological parameters, including PSA>20ng/ml (P7 (PmiR-139-5p distinguished PCa patients from BPH patients [area under the curve (AUC), 0.936; 95% CI, 0.878-0.993; PConclusions: Peripheral blood miR-139-5p may be utilized as a potential novel non-invasive biomarker for PCa screening