Circulating microRNAs and serum proteins in breast cancer patients: Diagnostic relevance and grade-specific expression patterns

Table 2 Relative expression values of the selected panel of microRNAs and levels of serum proteins (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and cancer antigen 15-3) in breast cancer patients and healthy control

Parameters	Groups	Minimum	Maximum	mean ± SD	Median	P value
MiR-21	Control	0.64	1.69	0.94 ± 0.24	0.89	0.000
	Grade II patients	1.28	3.79	2.31 ± 0.73a	2.11
	Grade III patients	3.78	8.54	6.59 ± 1.47a,b	6.84
MiR-221	Control	0.64	1.87	1.07 ± 0.34	0.95	0.000
	Grade II patients	0.89	2.48	1.47 ± 0.37a	1.41
	Grade III patients	1.36	4.56	2.53 ± 0.95a,b	2.40
MiR-1246	Control	0.12	2.89	1.08 ± 0.57	1.04	0.000
	Grade II patients	1.21	8.32	3.40 ± 1.57a	3.31
	Grade III patients	1.67	30.45	12.02 ± 7.85a,b	9.17
MiR-145	Control	0.41	1.09	0.80 ± 0.21	0.88	0.000
	Grade II patients	0.21	0.71	0.38 ± 0.14a	0.34
	Grade III patients	0.08	0.56	0.22 ± 0.13a,b	0.19
MiR-382	Control	0.26	1.18	0.80 ± 0.26	0.86	0.000
	Grade II patients	0.13	0.79	0.39 ± 0.16a	0.35
	Grade III patients	0.04	0.79	0.26 ± 0.24a	0.19
8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (Pg/mL)	Control	643.00	2648.00	917.60 ± 515.30	740.00	0.000
	Grade II patients	1849.00	3997.00	3292.92 ± 611.56a	3096.00
	Grade III patients	1849.00	3997.00	3480.00 ± 662.59a	3757.00
Cancer antigen 15-3 (U/mL)	Control	15.87	135.60	38.12 ± 41.91	20.67	0.000
	Grade II patients	119.70	420.00	241.94 ± 86.34a	222.40
	Grade III patients	122.40	435.30	311.00 ± 90.83a,b	319.85

^aP < 0.05, significant difference compared to control at a significant level.

^bP < 0.05, significant difference between grade II and grade III breast cancer patients at a significant level.

MiRNAs: MicroRNAs.