Clinical significance of microRNA-34a in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

ABSTRACT. has been found to be downregulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues compared with that in normal tissues (P < 0.05), and miR-34a overexpression increased apoptosis and decreased clonogenic formation. However, the clinical significance and prognostic value of miR-34a in ESCC has not yet been investigated. In total, 111 patients with ESCC diagnosed and treated at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Fujian Provincial Hospital between March 2008 and February 2014 were included in this retrospective study. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect expression levels of miR-34a. The associations between miR-34a expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed using χ 2 tests. For analysis of survival data, Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed, and the log-rank test was performed. The expression levels of miR-34a in ESCC tissues were significantly decreased (P < 0.01), compared with those in adjacent normal esophageal tissues. Low miR-34a expression in ESCC tissues was significantly associated with tumor differentiation (P = 0.013), lymph node status (P = 0.038), and advanced clinical stage (P < 0.001). The KaplanMeier analysis and log-rank test revealed that low miR-34a levels had a 17685 MicroRNA-34a in esophageal cancer ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (4): 17684-17691 (2015) significant impact on overall survival of patients with ESCC (P = 0.006). Multivariate analyses showed that the expression of miR-34a was an independent prognostic factor for ESCC (P = 0.018). Our findings indicate that there is reduced expression of miR-34a in human ESCC tissues and suggest a crucial role for miR-34a downregulation in ESCC progression and prognosis.

miR‑34a inhibits esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression via regulation of FOXM1

“…Increasing evidence has shown that alterations in the expression of miRNAs are associated with the development, prognosis and survival rate of EC (18). Studies have reported the lack of expression of miR-34a in ESCC and colon cancer (19,20). Consistent with those reports, we demonstrated the down-regulation of miR-34a in ESCC patients compared with paired cancer-adjacent normal tissues.…”

Tumor suppressor microRNA-34a inhibits cell migration and invasion by targeting MMP-2/MMP-9/FNDC3B in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…It indicates that the mechanisms of miR-34a repression may be aberrant from the CpG methylation of its promoter in ESCC. Studies have found that miR-34a overexpression can suppress cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT (22)(23)(24)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)43). Furthermore, miR-34a has significant relationships with node metastases, clinical stage, and patient mortality in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (12) and ESCC (43).…”

MicroRNA-34a functions as a tumor suppressor by directly targeting oncogenic PLCE1 in Kazakh esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…MiR-34a is located in chromosome 1p36, which belongs to the tumor suppressor miR-34 cluster [ 36 ]. Some studies have reported that miR-34a lacks expression in human esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and neuroblastoma [ 11 , 37 – 39 ], and that its low expression promotes tumor formation. We proved the relevance of miR-34a in clinical malignancies, that is, the low expression of miR-34a is significantly associated with advanced stages and lymph node metastasis in Kazakh ESCC patients.…”

“…To date, many human endogenous miRNAs have been reported in the oncogenesis and progression of ESCC, such as miR-130b [ 8 ], miR-93 [ 9 ], and miR-183 [ 10 ]. MiR-34a is downregulated and correlated with lymph node status and advanced clinical stage in ESCC, and low miR-34a levels in the cancer cells in ESCC are associated with increased colony formation and decreased apoptotic [ 11 – 17 ]. However, the role of miR-34a is complicated and the investigation between miR-34a and ESCC are little.…”