Clinical biomarkers of pulmonary carcinoid tumors in never smokers via profiling miRNA and target mRNA

We aimed to identify clinically meaningful biomarkers in pulmonary carcinoid tumors (PCTs), a member of neuroendocrine neoplasms, via profiling miRNAs and mRNAs. Fifty-one individuals who had never smoked tobacco products and developed PCTs between 1997 and 2008 were studied. A group of 47 carcinoids tumors were analyzed; each with paired tumor-adjacent normal tissue samples (at least 5 cm away from the primary tumors). There are 24 pairs of tumor/normal samples in FF tissues, and 23 pairs of tumor/normal samples in FFPE. The expression status of 1145 miRNAs was generated by Illumina miRNA Arrays.