Downregulation of tissue miR-338-3p predicts unfavorable prognosis of gastric cancer.

Numerous studies have proved that microRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in the tumorigenesis and progression of gastric cancer (GC). Our study was to investigate the correlation between miR-338-3p expression and clinical features as well as prognosis of GC. A total of 138 GC tissue specimens and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were collected for further analysis, then quantitative PCR method was used to detect the relative miR-338-3p expression. Our study showed that tissue miR-338-3p level was greatly decreased in cancer tissues compared with paired normal tissues. Furthermore, loss of tissue miR-338-3p was positively associated with aggressive clinical characteristics (advanced clinical stage, poorer differentiation and lymph node invasion), shorter overall survival and recurrence free survival. Finally, tissue miR-338-3p expression was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for GC. Overall, our findings indicate that miR-338-3p acts as a tumor suppressor in GC and tissue miR-338-3p might serve as a novel prognostic biomarker of GC.