Background and purpose: Gastric cancer is a common malignant tumor in gastroenterology. This study aimed to investigate the expressions of serum miR-135 and miR-601 and their diagnostic value in patients with gastric cancer. Methods: According to the progression of gastric cancer and clinical pathological stages

152 gastric cancer patients treated in Sanya Central Hospital from Jan. 2016 to Sep. 2019 were divided into early gastric cancer group (n=62) and advanced gastric cancer group (n=90)

stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ group (n=65) and stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ group (n=87)

non-lymph node metastasis group (n=73) and lymph node metastasis group (n=79). In addition

96 non-gastric cancer patients were selected as the non-gastric cancer group

and 60 healthy persons with normal physical examination were selected as the control group. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTFQ-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of serum miR-135 and miR-601 in each group

and chemiluminescence was used to determine the levels of carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9)

to analyze their diagnostic value in early gastric cancer. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the levels of miR-135 and miR-601 were correlated with CA72-4 and CA19-9. Results: Compared with the non-gastric cancer group and the control group

the average serum levels of miR-135

miR-601

CA72-4 and CA19-9 in gastric cancer group were significantly higher (all P0.001). The levels of miR-135 (5.70±1.84 vs 3.83±1.12)

miR-601 (11.28±3.73 vs 7.36±2.15)

CA72-4［(41.75±10.14) U/mL vs (17.82±4.93) U/mL］and CA19-9 ［(63.72±17.50) U/mL vs (35.84±10.36) U/mL］in advanced gastric cancer group were significantly higher than those in early gastric cancer group (all P0.001). The serum levels of miR-135 (6.10±1.90 vs 3.74±1.08)

miR-601 (12.14±3.92 vs 7.05±2.04)

CA72-4［(44.68±12.35) U/mL vs (16.40±4.52) U/mL］and CA19-9［(68.53±19.13) U/mL vs (33.75±10.60) U/mL］were significantly higher in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ group than in stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ group (all P0.001). The serum levels of miR-135

miR-601

CA72-4 and CA19-9 in stage Ⅱ gastric cancer patients were significantly higher than those in control group (P0.05). The serum levels of miR-135 (6.24±1.95 vs 3.65±0.97)

miR-601 (12.60±4.13 vs 6.84±1.92)

CA72-4［(48.70±12.37) U/mL vs (14.85±4.20) U/mL］ and CA19-9［(72.36±20.25) U/mL vs (31.60±10.17) U/mL］ in the lymph node metastasis group were significantly higher than those in the non-lymph node metastasis group (P0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the optimal cut-off values of serum miR-135

miR-601

CA72-4 and CA19-9 in the diagnosis of early gastric cancer were 3.78

7.14

17.63 U/mL and 35.70 U/mL

respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) (0.920

95% CI: 0.860-0.978) in the four combined diagnosis of early gastric cancer was the largest

with the sensitivity and specificity of 98.6% and 77.4%

respectively. Correlation analysis showed that the levels of miR-135 and miR-601 were positively correlated with CA72-4 and CA19-9 respectively (r=0.748

P0.001; r=0.694

P0.001; r=0.815

P0.001; r=0.716

P0.001). Conclusion: The serum levels of miR-135

miR-601

CA72-4 and CA19-9 are significantly increased in patients with gastric cancer

and the combined detection of the four items is useful in improving the diagnostic value in early gastric cancer.