Carcinomas could be discriminated from parathyroid adenomas by a computed score based on the expression levels of miR-296, miR-222, and miR-503 as miR-139 was similarly down-regulated in both cancers and adenomas.
By calculating the difference between dCT(miR-511) and dCT(miR-503) (delta cycle threshold), ACCs could be distinguished from benign adenomas with high sensitivity and specificity.