Cut-offs for relapse detection in men with stage I testicular germ cell tumors during active surveillance within a prospective multicentre cohort study using either raw or housekeeper normalized miR-371a-3p serum levels

MiR-371a-3p represents a novel liquid biomarker that detects all histologies of germ-cell tumors (GCT) except teratoma. However, it is currently unclear whether miR-371a-3p results obtained directly from RT-PCR (raw Cq) or normalized for housekeeper genes and transformed into the relative quantity (RQ) value should be used and at what cut-off level. The purpose of this research was to evaluate, which values should be used, and a potential cut-off level for relapse-detection to inform subsequent studies.