Micro RNA-141 levels among patients who have the serum total prostate specific antigen (PSA) level between 4-10 ng/ml (GRAY ZONE PSA level)

Prostate cancer is the most frequent malignancy of men in western countries and it is the second common cause of cancer death. The current standard for the diagnosis of PCa consists of a serum test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). A serum PSA measurement of 4 ng/ml is generally regarded as the threshold above which a prostate biopsy should be performed, although the specificity of the test is poor when PSA values are below 10 ng/ml. Between 25% and 40% of men with PSA levels between 4 and 10 ng/ml will have prostate cancer, meaning that 60–75% of men with PSA levels in the 4–10 ng/ml range will undergo unnecessary biopsies. Although PSA is a very good marker for monitoring patients after a radical prostatectomy, its utility as a diagnostic marker is far from being optimal. At present, there is need to re-evaluate the approach to diagnose and monitor prostate cancer. Small noncoding RNAs that are 19-23 nucleotides long, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), are involved in almost all biological mechanisms during carcinogenesis. Specifically, these small RNAs are involved in almost all of the known hallmarks of cancinogenesis, including cell growth, differentiation, proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis, and invasion and metastasis. In this study, we aimed to determine the effectiveness of the miR-141 level as a noninvasive test among the patients in gray zone PSA level for the decision of the doctor related to those group of the patients. For this purpose, a study group consisting of 11 PCa patients, 23 BPH and 16 healthy volunteers were established. Total RNA was extracted from serum, and with the approach of mİRNAs-specific, small RNA molecules were converted to cDNA. By qRT-PCR, serum levels of mature miR-141 molecules were determined. In our study, it has been found that the level of Mir-141 among PCa patients is significantly higher than the patients with BPH and the control group of patients. We think that miR-141 may guide the clinicans during the decision phase of the patients with PCa and BPH in PSA gray zone.