Figure 1.

A schematic overview of the workflow. High throughput sequencing (Discovery cohort – 20 RC patients) was performed on whole plasma collected at 2 sampling occasions to identify those miRNAs differentially expressed between two samplings (the first, at the time of diagnosis, T0 and the second, a year after the diagnosis, T1). miR-122-5p and miR-142-5p were validated in plasma and further in plasma EVs on an independent group of RC patients (n=107, Validation cohort) at the same 2 sampling occasions. Both miRNAs were also investigated in a control group consisting of cancer-free individuals (n=51) by RT-qPCR. The effect on cell proliferation, survival, and cell cycle was also studied on rectal cancer cell lines (in vitro studies).