Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology› Cancer Research› MicroRNA in disease regulation

Prostate cancer — Urine and plasma microRNA signature

Submitted 2026-10-23

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer ResearchType: No effect foundArea: prostate cancerTarget: Urine and plasma microRNA signatureStage: full study

Hypothesis

MicroRNAs in urine and blood taken at prostate surgery would predict which cancers are high-risk.

What failed

Three urine microRNAs (miR-16, miR-21, miR-222) predicted high-risk disease with AUC 0.75 in the first cohort, but the signature failed to validate in an independent cohort of 36 patients measured on a different PCR platform.

Broken assumption

A microRNA signature found in one patient cohort will predict outcomes in another.

Why

The first result did not hold in new patients with a different measurement method. The authors stress the need for independent validation cohorts.

From the published paper: Sapre et al. PLoS ONE, 2014. ↗CC BY

Research ideas from this failure

Unvetted lead — read the papers

New hypotheses this failure suggests, each with a crucial experiment, a rival explanation of the original result, and the papers it rests on. Written by AI from paper titles and abstracts found on OpenAlex (and Europe PMC, for life and health sciences).

Related failures (1)

Matched on shared genes, mechanisms and ways of failing as well as wording. Each shows why it matched — treat these as leads rather than verdicts.

myotonic dystrophy type 1Serum microRNA biomarkersdifferent research area
MicroRNAs that are misregulated in the heart and muscle of people with myotonic dystrophy type 1 would also differ in their blood serum and could track the disease.
Of 175 serum microRNAs profiled, none differed by more than 2.6-fold between patients and controls. Six candidates (miR-103, miR-107, miR-21, miR-29a, miR-30c, miR-652) showed no consistent difference in validation.
Why it matched: similar wording · mechanism: Gene expression & RNA

Links in published research

Where this experiment's genes are known to matter outside its own research area, and the papers behind those links. Sources: Open Targets Platform and Europe PMC.