miR-183 and miR-21 expression as biomarkers of progression and survival in tongue carcinoma patients.

OBJECTIVES

Micro RNAs (miRNAs) have a major role in human cancerogenesis.The current study investigated the prognostic significance of miR-183 and miR-21 expression in tongue carcinoma patients.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

For qPCR of miR-183 and miR-21 expression, total RNA isolated from 60 fresh-frozen tissue of tongue carcinomas was converted into cDNA by TaqMan MicroRNA Reverse Transcription Kit and quantified by TaqMan MicroRNAs Expression Assays. Fold changes in the miRNAs expression, normalized to RNU6B, were determined using 2 method, and dichotomized into high and low according to cut-off values derived from ROC curve analysis.

RESULTS

miR-183 emerged as promising discriminatory biomarker of poor outcome. Tissue over-expression of miR-183, observed in 68.3% of tongue carcinomas, was associated with clinical stage (p = 0.037), tumor size (p = 0.036), and high alcohol intake (p = 0.034).The patients with miR-183 over-expression had significantly shorter overall survival (p = 0.006) and a 5.666 times higher risk of poor outcome (p = 0.005), while miR-21 over-expression carried a tendency towards poorer survival (p = 0.073). However, multivariate analysis revealed that the recurrences were independent adverse prognostic factors, while miR-183 over-expression lost its significance.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggests that over-expression of miR-183 in tumor tissue could be a potential marker of clinical stage and a poor survival of tongue carcinoma patients and may be associated with high alcohol consumption.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Oncogenic miRNAs, such as the investigated miR-183 and miR-21, could be novel prognostic biomarkers of tumor progression and adverse clinical outcome in oral cancer, as well as novel therapeutic targets in cancer.