Urinary miRNA biomarkers for early detection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC)

Currently, the majority of patients diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) present with locally invasive and/or metastatic disease, resulting in five-year survival of less than 5%. The development of an early diagnostic test is, therefore, expected to significantly impact the patient’s prognosis. In this feasibility study, we demonstrate for the first time the utility of miRNA biomarkers for non-invasive, early detection of PDAC in urine specimens. Using Affymetrix microarrays, we established a global miRNA profile of urine specimens of 13 PDAC, six chronic pancreatitis (CP), and seven healthy (H) individuals. In order to test the reproducibility of the Affymetrix platform, three biological replicates (sample VG extraction 1, 2, 3) and two technical replicates of the same healthy samplewere also prepared (samples 1_VG_rep1 and 1_VG_rep2; 2_VG_rep1 and 2_VG_rep2).