Serum levels of hsa‐miR‐16‐5p, ‐29a‐3p, ‐150‐5p, ‐155‐5p and ‐223‐3p and subsequent risk of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the EPIC study

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is an incurable disease accounting for almost one-third of leukemias in the Western world. Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) is a wellestablished characteristic of CLL, and the robust nature of miRNAs makes them eminently suitable liquid biopsy biomarkers. Using a nested case-control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), the predictive values of five promising human miRNAs (hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-29a-3p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-155-5p and hsamiR- 223-3p), identified in a pilot study, were examined in serum of 224 CLL cases (diagnosed 3 months to 18 years after enrollment) and 224 matched controls using Taqman based assays. Conditional logistic regressions were applied adjusting for potential confounders. The median time from blood collection to CLL diagnosis was 10 years (p25-p75: 7-13 years). Overall, the upregulation of hsa-miR-150-5p, -155-5p, and -29a-3p was associated with subsequent risk of CLL [OR1ΔCt-unit increase (95%CI)=1.42 (1.18 to 1.72), 1.64 (1.31 to 2.04) and 1.75 (1.31 to 2.34) for hsa-miR-150-5p, -155-5p and -29a-3p, respectively] and the strongest associations were observed within 10 years of diagnosis. However, the predictive performance of these miRNAs was modest (area under the curve< 0.62). Hsa-miR-16-5p and -223-3p levels were unrelated to CLL risk. The findings of this first prospective study suggest that hsa-miR-29a, -150-5p and -155-5p were pregulated in early stages of CLL but were modest predictive biomarkers of CLL risk