Clinical significance of miR-148a expression in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer

Abstract

Objective To detect the expression of miR-148a in the tissues of esophageal squamous cell cancer, and investigate its clinicopathological and prognostic significance. Methods The tumor tissue specimens of 75 patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer undergoing subtotal esophagectomy and regional lymph node dissection between January 2009 and December 2009 at Qilu Hospital, Shandong University were obtained. Real-time PCR was performed to detect the expression of miR-148a. All statistical analyses were done with SPSS 18.0 software. χ2 test was used to examine the association between miR-148a expression and clinicopathological factors. Survival curves were plotted by the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival differences were compared by the Log-rank test. Cox regression multivariate analysis was conducted to identify significantly independent prognostic factors. Results The low expression of miR-148a was detected in 32(42.7%, 32/75) cases, and significantly correlated with infiltration depth (χ2=8.149, P=0.017), lymph node metastasis (χ2=4.151, P=0.042) and pathological stage (χ2=6.474, P=0.039). The overall 3-year survival after operation was 70.7%, and univariate survival analysis demonstrated that patients with low expression of miR-148a had significantly lower 3-year overall survival than those with high expression of miR-148a (53.1% vs 83.7%, χ2=9.136, P=0.003). Cox regression multivariate survival analysis indicated that infiltration depth (95%CI: 1.015-2.799, P=0.044) and lymph node metastasis (95%CI: 1.285-4.796, P=0.007) were independent predictors for 3-year overall survival. Conclusions Aberrant low expression of miR-148a exists in tissues of esophageal squamous cell cancer, and is significantly associated with tumor progression and unfavorable prognosis. miR-148a may serve as an indicator of progression and poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cell cancer. Key words: miR-148a; Esophageal squamous cell cancer, Progression, Prognosis