Urinary microRNA Profiles Distinguishing Prostate Cancer from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: An Exploratory Two-Cohort Small-RNA Sequencing Study

ABSTRACT: Urinary microRNAs (miRNAs) may help distinguish prostate cancer (PCa) from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In this exploratory study, we assessed the reproducibility of whole-urine small-RNA sequencing profiles across two independently recruited and sequenced cohorts of 7 (3 PCa, 4 BPH) and 25 subjects (13 PCa, 12 BPH). Across 177 miRNAs tested in both cohorts, log2 fold changes correlated (Pearson r=0.79; Spearman rho=0.70). Twenty-five miRNAs were significant in both cohorts with the same direction. The largest decreases in PCa involved immune-cell-enriched miRNAs (miR-142-3p/5p, miR-223-3p, miR-146a-5p). A seven-miRNA score ranked in the first cohort had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.897 (95% CI 0.75–1.00) in the second. In 14 subjects with serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the AUCs of the score and PSA were 0.875 and 0.500 (paired difference 95% CI −0.042 to 0.771). In public datasets, directions agreed partially with urine and serum and were mostly opposite in tumour tissue. These hypothesis-generating findings require prospective validation with orthogonal assays. Deposited data: raw single-end FASTQ files, mature-miRNA raw count and log2(RPM+1) matrices, and DESeq2 PCa-versus-BPH results for both cohorts.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE350283 | GEO | 2026/10/20

REPOSITORIES: GEO