The potential value of microRNAs as new biomarkers for pancreatic cancer (PCa) screening was explored in this study. Fecal microRNAs from stool samples obtained from 29 PCa patients, 22 chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients and 13 normal individuals were extracted, and 7 microRNAs (miR-16, miR-21, miR-155, miR-181a, miR-181b, miR-196a and miR-210) were detected. miR-181b and miR-210 discriminated PCa from normal individuals with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under curve (AUC-ROC) of 0.745 and 0.772, respectively. There was a significant correlation between miR‑196a and the maximum tumor diameter (Spearman r = 0.516, P = 0.041). These findings suggest that fecal microRNAs such as miR-181b and miR-210 may have potential to be used as new biomarkers for PCa screening.
Keywords: fecal microRNAs; pancreatic cancer; diagnosis.