%0 Journal Article
%T A signature of saliva-derived exosomal small RNAs as predicting biomarker for esophageal carcinoma: a multicenter prospective study.
%A Li K
%A Lin Y
%A Luo Y
%A Xiong X
%A Wang L
%A Durante K
%A Li J
%A Zhou F
%A Guo Y
%A Chen S
%A Chen Y
%A Zhang D
%A Yeung SJ
%A Zhang H
%J Mol Cancer
%V 21
%N 1
%D 01 2022 18
%M 35042519
%F 41.444
%R 10.1186/s12943-022-01499-8
%X The tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are produced in a nuclease-dependent manner in responses to variety of stresses that are common in cancers. We focus on a cancer-enriched tsRNA signature to develop a salivary exosome-based non-invasive biomarker for human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
Cancer-enriched small RNAs were identified by RNA sequencing of salivary exosomes obtained from ESCC patients (n = 3) and healthy controls (n = 3) in a pilot study and further validated in discovery cohort (n = 66). A multicenter prospective observational study was conducted in two ESCC high-incidence regions (n = 320 and 200, respectively) using the newly developed biomarker signature.
The tsRNA (tRNA-GlyGCC-5) and a previously undocumented small RNA were specifically enriched in salivary exosomes of ESCC patients, ESCC tissues and ESCC cells. The bi-signature composed of these small RNAs was able to discriminate ESCC patients from the controls with high sensitivity (90.50%) and specificity (94.20%). Based on the bi-signature Risk Score for Prognosis (RSP), patients with high-RSP have both shorter overall survival (OS) (HR 4.95, 95%CI 2.90-8.46) and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR 3.69, 95%CI 2.24-6.10) than those with low-RSP. In addition, adjuvant therapy improved OS (HR 0.47, 95%CI 0.29-0.77) and PFS (HR 0.36, 95%CI 0.21-0.62) only for patients with high but not low RSP. These findings are consistent in both training and validation cohort.
The tsRNA-based signature not only has the potential for diagnosis and prognosis but also may serve as a pre-operative biomarker to select patients who would benefit from adjuvant therapy.
A prospective study of diagnosis biomarkers of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, ChiCTR2000031507 . Registered 3 April 2016 - Retrospectively registered.