Fig. 1

A Schematic representation of the study. B Hierarchical clustering analysis of the 321 c-miRs commonly identified in all 3 c-miR expression datasets (GSE64591, GSE46729, GSE68951). Data (arrays) were median centered. Colors are as per the legend. C Volcano plot for the 321 c-miRs common to the 3 datasets GSE64591, GSE46729, GSE68951. Log2 fold-change and –log10 proportion of false positive (pfp) are reported, as per RankProd non-parametric method. Each dot represents one miRNA. Selected 45 c-miRs differentially expressed (pfp<0.05) are highlighted in red (upregulated) or in blue (downregulated) in tumor vs. normal samples; D ROC curves and AUC, for the model including 45 c-miRs and 36 c-miRs selected for the further testing (STEP-4), applied to the IARC dataset (GSE64591); E Hierarchical clustering analysis of the 45 c-miRs expression (data were median-array-centered) in the pools (N=6) of samples (N=108) collected at IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza Hospital (CSS) and Humanitas Research Hospital (HUM). Colors are as per the legend. On the right, bubbles represent the different criteria applied (as per the legend) to identify the 36 c-miRs. Highlighted in green, the 29 c-miRs selected (reliable detection in Step 2 analysis), and in yellow, the remaining 7 c-miRs selected in Step 3 and GSE64591 analysis. In bold, has-miR-197-3p which is included in the panel of 6 previously identified housekeeping c-miRs