Circulating extracellular vesicle miRNAs for distinguishing prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia
1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University (Air Force Medical University), Xi’an, China
3 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medical Diagnostics, Guangdong Engineering and Technology Research Center for Rapid Diagnostic Biosensors, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Single-cell and Extracellular Vesicles, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
4 Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research, Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Volume
  • Citation
    Ding T, Zhang X, Yu L. Circulating extracellular vesicle miRNAs for distinguishing prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia. ExRNA 2026(3):0014, https://doi.org/10.55092/exrna20260014. 
  • DOI
    10.55092/exrna20260014
  • Copyright
    Copyright2026 by the authors. Published by ELSP.
Abstract

Aim: Our previous studies identified three extracellular vesicle derived microRNAs (miR-92a-1-5p, miR-375 and miR-148a-3p) potentially associated with prostate cancer (PCa), particularly in advanced stages such as bone-metastatic PCa. This study aimed to evaluate their clinical diagnostic utility as a panel derived from plasma extracellular vesicles. Methods: A total of 49 treatment-naive participants, including 21 with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), 15 with localized PCa, and 13 with bone-metastatic PCa, were enrolled. Plasma extracellular vesicles were isolated, and absolute quantification of the three miRNAs was performed using digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Their individual and combined diagnostic performance for distinguishing PCa from BPH and identifying bone metastasis was assessed. Results: Among the three miRNAs, miR-92a-1-5p and miR-375 showed a statistically significant difference in expression between PCa and BPH. The combined three-miRNA panel achieved an improved area under the curve (AUC) of 0.736, representing an enhancement over single markers and outperforming serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (AUC = 0.682) in this cohort. The panel yielded an AUC of 0.766 for detecting bone-metastatic PCa versus BPH, but showed limited ability to discriminate localized from metastatic disease. Conclusion: These preliminary findings suggest that the plasma extracellular vesicle-derived three-miRNA panel has auxiliary diagnostic value for differentiating prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia, and may serve as a supplementary tool to serum PSA.

Keywords

prostate cancer; extracellular vesicles; miRNA; diagnosis

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