ArticleScientific reports2025
Circulating MicroRNAs do not provide a diagnostic benefit over tissue biopsy in patients with brain metastases.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Brain metastases (BMs) are frequent and devastating complications of systemic malignancies, necessitating accurate diagnosis and origin identification for effective treatment strategies. Invasive biopsies are currently required for definitive diagnosis, highlighting the need for less invasive diagnostic approaches and robust biomarkers. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have demonstrated potential as sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers in various cancers. Thus, our objective was to identify and compare miRNA profiles in BM tissue, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and plasma, with a specific focus on liquid biopsies for diagnostic purposes. Total RNA enriched for miRNAs was isolated from histopathologically confirmed BM tissues (n = 30), corresponding plasma samples (n = 30), and CSF samples (n = 27) obtained from patients with diverse BM types. Small RNA sequencing was employed for miRNA expression profiling. Significantly differentially expressed miRNAs were observed in BM tissues, enabling the differentiation of primary origins, particularly breast, colorectal, renal cell carcinoma, and melanoma metastases. The heterogeneity observed in lung carcinomas also manifested in the corresponding BMs, posing challenges in accurate discrimination from other BMs. While tissue-specific miRNA signatures exhibited the highest precision, our findings suggest low diagnostic potential of circulating miRNAs in CSF and blood plasma for BM patients. Our study represents the first analysis of miRNA expression/levels in a unique set of three biological materials (tissue, blood plasma, CSF) obtained from the same BM patients using small RNA sequencing. The presented results underscore the importance of investigating aberrant miRNA expression/levels in BMs and highlight the low diagnostic utility of circulating miRNAs in patients with BMs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.