Droplet Digital PCR and Quantitative RT-PCR Comparison for Circulating miR-371a-3p in Malignant Germ Cell Tumors

Previous work has shown that circulating miR-371a-3p has higher sensitivity and specificity than current biomarkers for malignant germ cell tumors (MGCTs). Herein, the performance of two methods commonly used to measure miR-371a-3p levels was compared: quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Samples from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, TX) and the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) were evaluated using both RT-qPCR and ddPCR, as per current protocols (RT-qPCR) or standard manufacturer’s recommendations (ddPCR).