Cited by 879MicroRNA in disease regulationExtracellular vesicles in diseaseCancer Genomics and Diagnostics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 4 of the 7 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Blood Cell Origin of Circulating MicroRNAs: A Cautionary Note for Cancer Biomarker Studies

Open access

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Circulating, cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) hold great promise as a new class of cancer biomarkers due to their surprisingly high stability in plasma, association with disease states, and ease of sensitive measurement. Yet little is known about the origin of circulating miRNAs in either healthy or sick people or what factors influence levels of circulating miRNA biomarkers. Of 79 solid tumor circulating miRNA biomarkers reported in the literature, we found that 58% (46 of 79) are highly expressed in one or more blood cell type. Plasma levels of miRNA biomarkers expressed by myeloid (e.g., miR-223, miR-197, miR-574-3p, and let-7a) and lymphoid (e.g., miR-150) blood cells tightly correlated with corresponding white blood cell counts. Plasma miRNA biomarkers expressed by red blood cells (e.g., miR-486-5p, miR-451, miR-92a, and miR-16) could not be correlated to red cell counts due to limited variation in hematocrit in the cohort studied but were significantly increased in hemolyzed specimens (20- to 30-fold plasma increase; P < 0.0000001). Finally, in a patient undergoing autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation, plasma levels of myeloid- and lymphoid-expressed miRNAs (miR-223 and miR-150, respectively) tracked closely with changes in corresponding blood counts. We present evidence that blood cells are a major contributor to circulating miRNA and that perturbations in blood cell counts and hemolysis can alter plasma miRNA biomarker levels by up to 50-fold. Given that a majority of reported circulating miRNA cancer biomarkers are highly expressed in blood cells, we suggest caution in interpretation of such results as they may reflect a blood cell-based phenomenon rather than a cancer-specific origin. Cancer Prev Res; 5(3); 492–7. ©2011 AACR.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Circulating microRNA biomarkers for solid tumors are frequently expressed by blood cells, and plasma levels of many such miRNAs track blood cell counts or hemolysis rather than tumor-specific biology. The authors caution that blood cell effects can be larger than reported cancer-vs-control differences and recommend interpreting circulating miRNA biomarkers alongside complete blood counts.

Key findings

  • Of 79 literature-reported solid tumor circulating miRNA biomarkers, 58% were highly expressed in one or more blood cell type; the abstract reports 47/79, while the Results section reports 46/79.
  • Plasma levels of myeloid-expressed miRNAs (e.g., miR-223, miR-197, miR-574-3p, let-7a) and lymphoid-expressed miR-150 correlated with corresponding white blood cell counts, with >50-fold differences in plasma miRNA levels between patients with the highest and lowest overall cell counts.
  • In hemolyzed specimens, all four RBC-associated miRNAs (miR-486-5p, miR-451, miR-92a, miR-16) increased 20–30 fold in plasma (p<0.0000001), whereas none of six non-RBC-associated miRNAs were significantly increased.
  • In a patient undergoing myeloablative chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant, plasma miR-223 and miR-150 tracked closely with changes in myeloid and lymphoid blood counts, respectively.

Methods

  • qRT-PCR profiling of 369 miRNAs was performed on FACS-sorted blood cell populations, plasma, and whole blood; 4 independent FACS experiments used peripheral blood from one healthy male donor.
  • A cohort of 42 consecutive residual patient plasma specimens with complete differential blood counts was used to correlate ten selected miRNAs with blood cell counts; one additional transplant patient had serial plasma samples collected prospectively.
  • Main analyses included correlation of plasma miRNA levels with blood cell counts, comparison of hemolyzed vs. non-hemolyzed specimens, and unsupervised hierarchical clustering of plasma miRNA expression across patient samples.

Limitations

  • Stated: the study does not directly assess the relative contribution of different blood cell types to plasma miRNA or examine mechanisms of miRNA release into plasma.
  • Stated: pre-analytical and analytical sources of variation, including collection, processing, RNA extraction, measurement, data acquisition, and normalization, may influence plasma miRNA levels.
  • Evident: RBC-expressed miRNAs could not be correlated with RBC counts because of limited variation in RBC count/hematocrit in the cohort; only 3 of 42 plasma specimens were hemolyzed; the transplant time-course involved a single patient; and the text contains minor numerical discrepancies (e.g., 47/79 vs. 46/79; 21 specimens vs. 25 timepoints; 32- vs. 33-day period).

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1158/1940-6207.capr-11-0370

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

17 Own result · 10 Own interpretation · 6 Own method · 2 Partly supported · 1 Supported so far · 1 No full text of the sources · 1 No basis given · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 27 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 8
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 5
11 of 11
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Changes in plasma miRNA levels in the single transplant patient are attributable to changes in blood cell counts rather than other effects of myeloablative chemotherapy or transplant.

    “we examined miR-223 (myeloid cell-expressed) and miR-150 (lymphoid cell-expressed) miRNAs in the plasma of a patient over a time-course of myeloablative chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplant engraftment (Table S3).”
    “demonstrating that white blood cell counts can significantly influence plasma levels of blood cell-expressed miRNAs.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Blood cell miRNA expression profiles measured in purified sorted blood cells reflect the contribution of those cell types to circulating plasma miRNAs in vivo.

    “We used qRT-PCR to examine expression of 79 miRNAs reported as circulating solid tumor biomarkers in purified sub-populations of blood cells and in matched healthy donor plasma (9-13) (Fig. S1).”
    “suggesting that blood cells could be a major source for these plasma miRNAs”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The 42 residual patient specimens are representative of a general patient population for assessing correlations between blood cell counts and plasma miRNA levels.

    “The cohort consisted of consecutive residual patient plasma samples collected at a single academic medical center, including both inpatients and outpatients with a wide variety of underlying diseases (Table S2).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Hemolysis determined by visual inspection accurately identifies specimens with red blood cell lysis sufficient to release miRNAs.

    “specimen characteristics (such as hemolysis determined by visual inspection)”
    “3 of the 42 plasma specimens were noted to be hemolyzed.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The 79 literature-reported solid tumor biomarkers are a representative set of circulating miRNA cancer biomarkers.

    “At least 79 miRNAs have been reported as plasma or serum miRNA biomarkers of solid tumors (i.e., non-hematopoietic malignancies), including prostate, lung, breast, colon, ovarian, esophageal, melanoma, and gastric cancer (Table S1).”
5 of 5

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

2 of 2

Cited works that were retracted

Works this paper cites that were later retracted, from the retraction notices publishers deposit. Major when the notice came out before this paper was published.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

1 retracted

Show all 34 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 401–500 of 878

Metadata

Authors
Pritchard, C. C., Kroh, E., Wood, B., Arroyo, J. D., Dougherty, K. J., Miyaji, M. M., Tait, J. F., & Tewari, M.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Tewari, Muneesh
Venue
Cancer Prevention Research
Published
2012-03-01
Volume
5
Issue
3
Pages
492-497
ISSN
  • 1940-6207 (ISSN-L)
  • 1940-6215
OpenAlex
W2140775205
Cited by
879
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 71 · 2017: 86 · 2016: 87 · 2015: 103 · 2014: 95 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 27
FWCI
20.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cancer Prevention Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5p50ca083636-15)
  • National Cancer Institute (P50-CA083636, P30CA015704, P50CA097186)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK085714)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › MicroRNA in disease regulation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Extracellular vesicles in disease
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
Keywords
circulating microRNAs, cell-free microRNAs, tumor markers, hemolysis, white blood cell count, red blood cell count, myeloid cells, lymphoid cells, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, miR-223, miR-150, miR-574-3p, miR-197, miR-451, miR-486-5p, miR-92a, miR-16
MeSH terms
Erythrocytes, Humans, Neoplasms, Plasma, RNA, Messenger, Biomarkers, Tumor, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Gene Expression Profiling, MicroRNAs, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-11-06, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-11-06 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review