World Journal of Oncology, ISSN 1920-4531 print, 1920-454X online, Open Access
Article copyright, the authors; Journal compilation copyright, World J Oncol and Elmer Press Inc
Journal website https://wjon.elmerpub.com

Review

Volume 16, Number 1, February 2025, pages 1-15


MicroRNA-155 as Biomarker and Its Diagnostic Value in Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Figures

↓  Figure 1. Flowchart showing strategy searches and selection processes for the systematic review.
Figure 1.
↓  Figure 2. The risk of bias of the methodology of the selected studies. All the studies were ranked low risk of bias in flow and timing and index test. However, 23% of studies were found to have high risk of bias in patient’s selection, while 19% of the studies were ranked unclear in reference standard.
Figure 2.
↓  Figure 3. The applicability of the methodology of the selected studies. All the studies were ranked low risk of error in index test. However, 23% of studies were found to have high risk of errors in patient’s selection, while 19% of the studies were ranked unclear in reference standard.
Figure 3.

Tables

↓  Table 1. Comprehensive Characteristics of Selected Studies, Association of miR-155 Expression in Serum or Plasma and Clinicopathological Features of Breast Cancer Patients
 
No. Year Sample used Cohort study MiRNA Method miR-155 expression Clinicopathological changes Area under curve of ROC Sensitivity, % Specificity, % Reference
BC: breast cancer; ER: estrogen receptor; HER2: human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; N/A: not applicable; PR: progesterone receptor; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; RT-qPCR: qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.
1 2015 Serum 120 breast cancer patients; 50 healthy controls miR-10b, miR-34a, miR-155, miR-195, and miR-16 RT-qPCR Upregulated Breast cancer patients in advanced stages (II, III, and IV) or with distant metastasis have higher expression of miR-155 in serum. N/A N/A N/A [33]
2 2015 Serum Four breast cancer patients; four healthy controls miR-21, miR-34a, miR-125b, miR-155, miR-195, miR-200b, miR-200c, miR-375, and miR-451 RT-qPCR No significant different N/A N/A N/A N/A [34]
3 2016 Serum 99 breast cancer patients; 21 healthy controls miR-21, miR-125b, miR-145, miR-155, and miR-365 RT-qPCR Upregulated miR-155 expression was higher in stage III compared to stage I and II. 0.749 100.00 51.02 [32]
4 2016 Serum 148 breast cancer patients; 142 heathy controls miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.879 84.20 88.10 [28]
5 2016 Plasma 106 breast cancer patients; 106 healthy controls miR-155, miR-21, and miR-10b RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.692 66.00 68.90 [31]
6 2017 Plasma 128 breast cancer patients; 28 healthy controls miR-17, miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-20a, miR-21, miR-27a, and miR-155 RT-qPCR Downregulated High expression of miR-155 in invasive breast cancer patients’ plasma was found associated with estrogen and progesterone positive breast cancer. N/A N/A N/A [35]
7 2018 Plasma 30 breast cancer patients; 25 healthy controls miR-21 and miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated No correlation between miR-155 and tumor size, lymph nodes, tumor stages and age. 0.920 N/A N/A [27]
8 2018 Serum 158 breast cancer patients; 107 healthy controls Let-7a, miR-155, miR-574-5p, miR-21, miR-10b, miR-181b, miR-1254, miR-196a, miR-205, and miR-195 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.817 83.30 80.00 [17]
9 2019 Serum 96 breast cancer patients; 47 benign breast disease; 39 healthy controls miR-21, miR-155, and miR-126 RT-qPCR Upregulated High expression of miR-155 significantly associated with late stages and high-grade tumor 0.995 95.80 96.50 [30]
10 2019 Plasma 37 breast cancer patients; 34 healthy controls miR-155, miR-376c, miR-17a, and miR-10b RT-qPCR Upregulated miR-155 expression was found increased in stage II breast cancer but decreased in stage III and IV breast cancer. However, miR-155 decreases in terms of tumor size, lymph nodes involvement and metastasis in advanced stages. 0.847 100.00 73.53 [25]
11 2019 Serum 80 breast cancer patients; 40 benign breast disease; 30 healthy controls miR-17-5p, miR-155, and miR-222 RT-qPCR Upregulated Increased expression of miR-155 in primary BC group. Late stage and advanced grade BC show elevated miR-155 expressions. 0.933 95.00 97.10 [24]
12 2020 Plasma 102 breast cancer patients; 15 healthy controls miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated miR-155 expression was found higher in patients who are above 40 years old compared to younger group of patients. In addition, high miR-155 expression was observed in patients with grade III breast cancer or tumor size more than 5 cm. N/A N/A N/A [20]
13 2020 Serum 36 breast cancer patients; 36 healthy controls miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated Increased expression in breast cancer patients (of all grades, stages, T sizes, lymph node metastasis, PR, ER, HER2, and Ki-67). 0.890 77.78 88.89 [29]
14 2020 Serum 45 breast cancer patients; 50 idiopathic granulomatous mastitis; 48 healthy controls miR-155, let-7c, and miR-21 RT-qPCR Downregulated N/A N/A N/A N/A [36]
15 2021 Plasma 41 breast cancer patients; 32 healthy controls miR-155, miR-21, miR-23a, miR-130a, miR-145, miR-425-5p, miR-139-5p, miR-451, miR-195, miR-125b, miR-100, and miR-182 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.765 78.00 75.00 [21]
16 2021 Plasma 20 breast cancer patients; 20 healthy controls miR-21, miR-27b, miR-125a, miR-155, miR-200c, miR-335, and miR-373 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.856 83.30 82.40 [22]
17 2022 Plasma 45 breast cancer patients; 15 high risk breast cancer patients; 20 healthy controls miR-10b, miR-21, miR-155, miR-145, and let-7c RT-qPCR Downregulated miR-155 expression was downregulated in breast cancer patients with lymphatic invasion compared to breast cancer patients without. 0.836 70.00 91.00 [37]
18 2022 Serum 99 breast cancer patients; 40 healthy controls miR-155, miR-373, miR-10b, and miR-34a RT-qPCR Upregulated miR-155 was upregulated in PR-negative breast cancer, large tumor and lymph node metastasis. 0.944 86.90 90.00 [23]
19 2023 Serum 139 triple negative breast cancer patients; 51 healthy controls miR-205, miR-155, and miR-21 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.870 87.70 63.70 [26]

 

↓  Table 2. Comprehensive Characteristics of Selected Studies, Association of miR-155 Expression of Biological Samples and Clinicopathological Features in Breast Cancer Patients
 
No. Year Sample used Cohort study MiRNA Method miR-155 expression Clinicopathological changes Area under curve of ROC Sensitivity, % Specificity, % Reference
HER2: human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; N/A: not applicable; PR: progesterone receptor; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; RT-qPCR: qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.
1 2014 Biopsy 57 breast cancer patients; 20 healthy controls miR-148b, miR-10b, miR-21, miR-221, and miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated miR-155 was significantly upregulated in PR negative and HER2 overexpressed breast cancer. However, lymph node involvement, tumor size and grade groups did not reveal any significant differences of miR-155 expression. N/A N/A N/A [39]
2 2015 Urine 24 breast cancer patients; 24 healthy controls miR-21, miR-34a, miR-125b, miR-155, miR-195, miR-200b, miR-200c, miR-375, and miR-451 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.814 N/A N/A [34]
3 2016 Biopsy 35 breast cancer patients (adjacent tissue as control) miR-221, miR-222, miR-20a, miR-200a, miR-155, miR-21, miR-146b, miR-125b, and miR-205 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.870 N/A N/A [40]
4 2017 Nipple aspirate fluid 20 breast cancer patients; 12 healthy controls miR-16, miR-21, miR-100, miR-129, miR-145, miR-155, miR-181, miR-199, miR-205, and miR-212 RT-qPCR No significant different miR-155 expression was high in node positive breast cancer patients compared to node negative breast cancer patients. N/A N/A N/A [44]
5 2018 Biopsy 30 breast cancer patients; 25 healthy controls miR-21 and miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.810 N/A N/A [27]
6 2019 Biopsy 50 breast cancer patients; 50 healthy controls miR-127-3p, miR-133a-3p, miR-155-5p, miR-199b-5p, and miR-342-5p RT-qPCR Upregulated Expression of miR-155 was high in HER-2 positive breast cancer patients. 0.740 N/A N/A [38]
7 2020 Peripheral blood mononuclear cells 15 breast cancer patients; 15 healthy controls miR-155, miR-27b, and miR-29a RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A 0.941 84.40 91.10 [42]
8 2021 Peripheral blood mononuclear cells 70 breast cancer patients; 40 healthy controls miR-155 RT-qPCR Upregulated Expression of miR-155 was high with breast cancer with high tumor grade. N/A N/A N/A [43]
9 2022 Serum exosomes Seven breast cancer patients; seven healthy controls miR-21, miR-155, miR-182, miR-373, and miR-126 RT-qPCR Upregulated N/A N/A N/A N/A [41]

 

↓  Table 3. Quality Assessment for All Selected Articles Based on Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) and the Score of Each Section
 
Studies Consecutive or random sample of patient enrolled for control Avoid inappropriate exclusion? Were index test results interpreted without knowledge of results of reference standard? If a threshold was used, was it pre-specified? Is reference standard likely to correctly classify target condition? Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of results of index test? Did all patients receive a reference standard? Did patients receive same reference standard? Were all patients included in analysis? Score
1 represents “yes”, 0 represents “no” and “unclear”.
Nassar et al (2014) [39] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Erbes et al (2015) [34] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Hagrass et al (2015) [33] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Han et al (2016) [32] 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
Guo et al (2016) [28] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Zhang et al (2016) [31] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Jurkovicova et al (2017) [35] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Qin et al (2017) [44] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Soleimanpour et al (2018) [27] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Huang et al (2018) [17] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Shaheen et al (2019) [25] 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 7
Kolesnikov et al (2019) [40] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 8
Swellam et al (2019) [24] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Swellam et al (2019) [30] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Aksan et al (2020) [36] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Anwar et al (2020) [20] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Bitaraf et al (2020) [38] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Mojahed et al (2020) [29] 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 6
Raeisi et al (2020) [42] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Itani et al (2021) [21] 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
Canatan et al (2021) [22] 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
Iranparast et al (2021) [43] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Asgari et al (2022) [41] 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3
Mohamed et al (2022) [37] 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 6
Mohamed et al (2022) [23] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Kumar et al (2023) [26] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9

 

↓  Table 4. Risk of Bias and Applicability of the Methodology of Each Selected Study
 
Risk of bias Applicability
Patient selection Index test Reference standard Flow and timing Patient selection Index test Reference standard
“Low” represents low risk of bias and low risk of errors when methodology is applied; “Unclear” indicates the risk of bias and risk of errors are unclear when the methodology is applied; “High” represents high risk of bias and high risk of errors when methodology is applied.
Nassar et al (2014) [39] High Low Low Low High Low Low
Erbes et al (2015) [34] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Hagrass et al (2015) [33] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Han et al (2016) [32] Unclear Low Unclear Low Unclear Low Unclear
Guo et al (2016) [28] Low Low Unclear Low Low Low Unclear
Zhang et al (2016) [31] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Jurkovicova et al (2017) [35] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Qin et al (2017) [44] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Soleimanpour et al (2018) [27] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Huang et al (2018) [17] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Shaheen et al (2019) [25] High Low Low Low High Low Low
Kolesnikov et al (2019) [40] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Swellam et al (2019) [24] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Swellam et al (2019) [30] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Aksan et al (2020) [36] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Anwar et al (2020) [20] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Bitaraf et al (2020) [38] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Mojahed et al (2020) [29] Low Low Unclear Low Low Low Unclear
Raeisi et al (2020) [42] High Low Low Low High Low Low
Itani et al (2021) [21] High Low Low Low High Low Low
Canatan et al (2021) [22] High Low Low Low High Low Low
Iranparast et al (2021) [43] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Asgari et al (2022) [41] High Low Unclear Low High Low Unclear
Mohamed et al (2022) [37] Low Low Unclear Low Low Low Unclear
Mohamed et al (2022) [23] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low
Kumar et al (2023) [26] Low Low Low Low Low Low Low