Use of Serum Circulating Ccnb2 in Cancer Surveillance

TLDR

Cyclin B2 (CCNB2) is a cyclin protein that is up‑regulated in many human cancers. The study aimed to assess whether serum circulating CCNB2 mRNA could serve as a biomarker for cancer surveillance. Researchers quantified circulating CCNB2 mRNA levels in 103 cancer patients, 19 healthy controls, and 40 benign disease patients using real‑time quantitative reverse‑transcriptase PCR. Circulating CCNB2 mRNA was markedly higher in cancer patients, correlated with stage and metastasis, achieved AUCs of 0.87 (lung) and 0.83 (digestive tract) for detecting metastasis, declined after treatment, and thus holds promise for screening and monitoring metastasis and therapeutic response.

Abstract

Cyclin B2 (CCNB2), a member of the cyclin protein family, has been found to be up-regulated in human cancers. To evaluate the potential use of circulating CCNB2 in serum in cancer surveillance, we examined relative expression levels of serum circulating CCNB2 mRNA in 103 cancer patients, 19 normal controls, and 40 benign disease patients using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We found that the relative expression level of circulating CCNB2 mRNA in cancer patients was significantly higher (p<0.0001) than that in normal controls and benign diseases group. Circulating CCNB2 mRNA level was significantly (p<0.001) correlated with cancer stage and metastasis status. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87 and 0.83 (p<0.05) in identifying cancer patients' metastasis status in lung and digestive tract cancer, respectively. Moreover, we observed that expression levels of circulating CCNB2 mRNA in cancer patients significantly decreased (p=0.0084) after their therapeutic treatments. These data suggest that detection of serum circulating CCNB2 mRNA may have potential clinical applications in screening and monitoring of metastasis and therapeutic treatments.