Expression and clinical significance of serum microRNA-663 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients / 国际肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression level of serum microRNA-663 (miR-663) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients and its relationships with clinicopathological features and prognosis.Methods The serums of 60 NPC patients (NPC group),40 patients with nasopharyngeal chronic inflammation (nasopharyngitis group) and 30 healthy subjects (health control group) were collected from June 2014 to April 2017 in our hospital.The relative expression levels of serum miR-663 were detected by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).The relationships between the expression of miR-663 and clinicopathological features were analyzed.The diagnostic value of serum miR-663 in patients with NPC was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.According to the optimal cut-off value determined by the ROC curve,the patients were divided into miR-663 ≥ optimal cut-off value group and miR-663 ＜ optimal cut-off value group,and prognosis analysis was performed for the two groups.Results The relative expression levels of miR-663 among NPC group (6.38 ± 2.05),nasopharyngitis group (3.11 ± 0.97) and health control group (1.74 ±0.75) were significantly different (F =107.722,P =0.001).Serum miR-663 level in NPC group was significantly higher than that in nasopharyngitis group and healthy control group,with significant differences (both P ＜0.001).The relative expression level of miR-663 in nasopharyngitis group was significantly higher than that in health control group,with a significant difference (P ＜ 0.001).The relative expression of serum miR-663 in patients with NPC was not related to patient's age,sex and differentiation (t =1.832,P =0.072;t =0.578,P =0.565;F =0.132,P =0.877).The relative expression of miR-663 in stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ (5.24 ±1.98) was significantly lower than that in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ (6.99 ± 1.84) of NPC patients,with a significant difference (t =3.417,P ＜ 0.001).The relative expression of serum miR-663 in patients with lymph node metastasis (7.55 ± 1.38) was significantly higher than that in patients without lymph node metastasis (4.62 ± 1.60),with a significant difference (t =7.572,P =0.001).The analysis of the diagnostic value of serum miR-663 in patients with NPC using the ROC curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of miR-663 was 0.939.When the optimal cut-off value of miR-663 was 3.190,the sensitivity was 80.0％ and the specificity was 89.0％.The median survival time in miR-663 ≥3.190 group (21.7 months) was significantly shorter than that in miR-663 ＜3.190 group (33.4 months),with a significant difference (x2 =4.332,P =0.037).Conclusion The relative expression level of serum miR-663 in patients with NPC is increased,and the expression level of miR-663 is related to lymph node metastasis and clinical stage.High expression of miR-663 predicts poor clinical outcomes,and miR-663 may be a potential predictor of prognosis in patients with NPC.