The Study Of MiR-221/222 Expression As Potential Clinical Biomarkers In NSCLC

Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the expression of miR-221/222 in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer(NSCLC) and its correlation with clinical pathological parameters, and to research the potential of miR-221/222 expression as clinical biomarkers.Methods: The clinical pathological characteristics and formalin fixed- paraffin embedded(FFPE) tissue of 55 NSCLC patients and 10 benign lesion patients who underwent surgery in the first affiliated hospital of Nanhua University from April 2012 to May 2014 were collected. All subjects were follow-uped.The relationship between miR-221/222 expression which detected by Real-time PCR and clinical pathological parameters and Progression-Free Survival(PFS) were analysed. Log-rank test was applied to compare the differential survival between the high expression group and the low expression group of miR-221/222. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was utilized to examine the prognostic factors of NSCLC.Results: The expression level of miR-221/222 was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in corresponding benign lesion tissues(Fold change=3.52,P=0.000; Fold change=2.01,P=0.000). No statistically significance was observed between the expression of miRNA-221/222 and some clinicopathologic parameters, including gender、age、history of smoking、history of alcohol intake、histology、tumor size、tumor location、visceral pleural invasion(VPI) and p-TNM stage. There was a negative correlation between miR-221/222 expression and pathological grades(r=-0.732,P=0.000;r=-0.451,P=0.001).The relative expression of miR-221 showed a positive correlation with mi R-222(P=0.028,P=0.008). Patients with higher levels of miR-221/222 were closely associated with a shorter PFS(P=0.028,P=0.008). Finally, univariate analysis indicated that high miR-221/222 expression were associated with poor PFS(RR=2.518,P=0.034;RR=3.149,P=0.011); multivariate analysis demonstrated that miR-222 expression was independently associated with poor PFS(RR=2.808,P=0.033).Conclusions: miR-221/222 were up-regulated in tumor tissues compared to the control tissues and that they had a positive correlation; A negative correlation was observed between the expression of miR-221/222 and tumor differentiation.The potential of miR-221/222 high expression as tumor biomarkers for NSCLC’s prognosis warrants further study.