Testicular cancer accounts for 5% of adult urological malignancies. The incidence of this disease has increased over the past decades. Currently, the standard serum biomarkers for testicular cancer used in the clinical practice are α-fetoprotein, β choriogonadotropin and lactate dehydrogenase. These biomarkers lack sensitivity and specificity when assessing the effectiveness of treatment, thus a set of patients can undergo overtreatment that can cause various adverse effects. Up to date, only 23 scientific studies have been published evaluating the significance of nucleic acids for diagnosis, prognosis and outcome prediction in testicular cancer. Nucleic acids, especially miRNA, show higher sensitivity and clinical utility compared to serum biomarkers and could be the potential new biomarkers for testicular cancer. The aim of the study is to perform a comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression in testicular carcinomas, evaluate their diagnostic, prognostic and predictive potential, and availability in liquid biopsies from patients. High throughput genome-wide and targeted methos will be used to analyse miRNA in retrospective and prospective cohorts of patients with testicular cancer.
Mokslinis vadovas / supervisor: Prof. dr. Sonata Jarmalaitė
Kontaktai / Contacts:
tel. / phone: +370 60002552
Programme: Biology N 010