Abstract
Our recent investigation has shown that the variables of microRNA-1268a may involve in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis. Here, we attempted to identify the prognostic significance of microRNA-1268a expression in tumor tissues by a retrospective analysis in 411 patients with HCC, and analyze its effects on post-operative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) improving HCC prognosis. All cases received tumor resection or tumor resection plus post-operative adjuvant TACE as an initial treatment. Logistical regression analysis exhibited that microRNA-1268a expression was significantly correlated with tumor stage, tumor grade, tumor size, and microvessel density. Cox regression analysis showed that microRNA-1268a expression was an independent prognostic factor for HCC, and TACE treatment had no effects on prognosis of HCC patients with high microRNA-1268a expression. More intriguingly, TACE improved the prognosis of HCC patients with low microRNA-1268a expression. Functionally, overexpression of microRNA-1268a inhibited while its inhibitor enhanced doxorubicin-induced the death of cancer cells. These results suggest that microRNA-1268a may be an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients, and that decreasing microRNA-1268a expression may be beneficial for post-operative adjuvant TACE treatment in HCC.
Highlights
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a life-threating malignancy, accounting for more than 90% of primary liver cancer
On the basis of a relative large-scale retrospective study, we investigated the association between miR-1268a expression and the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
It was found that the decreasing levels of miR-1268a expression had a substantial association with the poor outcome of HCC (HR, 2.44 and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), 1.82–3.23 for overall survival (OS), 2.86 and 2.08–3.85 for recurrence-free survival (RFS), respectively)
Summary
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a life-threating malignancy, accounting for more than 90% of primary liver cancer. More than 2000 microRNAs have been identified; parts of them (such as microRNA −624, microRNA −2 4, microRNA-101, and so on) have shown to be able to act as valuable prognostic factors and potential therapeutic targets for HCC11,18–22 Among these microRNAs, microRNA-1268a (miR-1268a), which is an important abundant microRNA encoded by MIR1268A gene and functionally involves in embryogenesis and cell differentiation[23], is particular concern in our research projects. Our previous data from a large molecular epidemiological investigation have exhibited that the genetic variables in the seeding region of miR-1268a were correlated with tumor angiogenesis and may involve in the carcinogenesis of HCC24. We continued to investigate the possible prognostic significance of miR-1268a expression for HCC patients and possible value for the selection of post-operative adjuvant TACE treatment in this study
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