PREOPERATIVE SERUM microRNA PROFILING AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL IN GLIOMA

Abstract

Current diagnosis of glioma is based on clinical suspicion, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultimately surgical biopsy based on WHO criteria for neuropathology. Blood sampling for circulating assessment of biomarkers is a potentially valuable method that could supplement diagnostic criteria by providing pre-operative molecular information. We previously showed that miR-10b and miR-21 were significantly upregulated in untreated high-grade glioma patients compared to healthy controls. We hypothesized that largescale miRNA profiling could improve diagnostic discrimination across all grades of glioma. Pre-operative serum samples were collected from 91 glioma patients (45 GBM, 46 low grade g..