Biomarker

Serum Dickkopf-1 levels as a clinical and prognostic factor in patients with bladder cancer

D. K. Sun, Wang, L., Wang, J. M., and Zhang, P., “Serum Dickkopf-1 levels as a clinical and prognostic factor in patients with bladder cancer”, vol. 14, pp. 18181-18187, 2015.

Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is a secreted protein that inhibits Wnt signaling. However, the clinical significance and prognostic value of serum DKK-1 levels have not been previously investigated in bladder cancer in Chinese patients. Blood samples were taken from 94 consecutive patients diagnosed with bladder cancer and 60 healthy control subjects. Serum DKK-1 expression levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Diagnostic performance of microRNA-29a for colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis

M. L. Zhi, Liu, Z. J., Yi, X. Y., Zhang, L. J., and Bao, Y. X., “Diagnostic performance of microRNA-29a for colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis”, vol. 14, pp. 18018-18025, 2015.

Previous studies have revealed that the expression level of microRNA-29a (miR-29a) was remarkably different in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and healthy controls, indicating that miR-29a can be used as a diagnostic marker of CRC, but the results have been inconsistent. We conducted this meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic performance of blood-based miR-29a for CRC. We performed a systematic review of studies published over the past two decades to investigate the diagnostic performance of serum miR-29a for the diagnosis of CRC.