ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression level of serum miR-193a-3p,miR-337-5p and miR-483-5p in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients and to explore their value for diagnosis and prognosis of ESCC.Methods Serum samples were collected from 63 ESCC patients before and after surgery in Nanjing General Hospital and Xuzhou Cancer Hospital between June 2013 and May 2014 and serum sanples of 63 age-and sex-matched healthy individuals acted as the normal controls.TaqMan Low Density Assay was used to detect the deregulated miRNA in ESCC patients and then quantitative real-time PCR was used to validate the upregulated miRNA miR-193a-3p,miR-337-5p and previously reported miR483-5p that was upregulated in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).Finally,the three miRNA were evaluated for their clinical value in the diagnosis and predicting prognosis of ESCC.Results Compared with normal controls,serum levels of miR193a-3p,miR-337-5p and miR-483-5p in ESCC patients were significantly up-regulated (0.459±0.339 vs 0.195±0.084,U =591;5.686±5.211 vs 2.476±0.808,U=605;32.545 ± 22.479 vs 19.509±10.601,U=1 037,respectively,all P＜ 0.0001) and their levels were significantly reduced after the surgical treatment (P＜0.05).The areas under the ROC curve of serum miR-193a-3p,miR-337-5p,miR-483-5p and miR-Panel were all larger than that of CEA.Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that ESCC patients with low expression level of miR-483-5p in postoperative serum exhibited higher survival rate than those with high level(P=0.022).Conclusion Serum miR-193a-3p,miR-337-5p and miR-483-5p can be potential molecular biomarkers in the diagnosis and predicting prognosis of ESCC.