Early detection of lung cancer in exhaled breath condensate using miRNA markers

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer worldwide. Since 5-year survival rate increases significantly when lung cancer is diagnosed at early stages, the development of accurate non-invasive biomarkers for early lung cancer diagnosis is of utmost importance. Over the last years, several tumour biomarkers based on microRNAs (miRNAs) determined in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) have been evaluated and could be applied to early diagnosis of lung cancer. Rationale: miRNA signatures for surgical specimens of lung cancer have been determined providing a panel of differentially expressed miRNAs that were able to discriminate lung cancer patients from normal subjects. Using …