Up-regulation of microRNA-183-3p is a potent prognostic marker for lung adenocarcinoma of female non-smokers.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer in never smokers presents predominately as adenocarcinoma and in females. MicroRNA-183 (miR-183) has various expression patterns in types of human cancers. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of miR-183-3p in female lung adenocarcinoma and adjacent noncancerous tissues and explored its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.

METHODS: In the present study, a hundred female nonsmoking patients who were newly diagnosed and histologically confirmed as lung adenocarcinoma at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital were included. miR-183-3p expression of surgically removed NSCLC tissues and their corresponding normal lung tissues was measured by qRT-PCR assay. Associations of miR-183-3p expression with clinicopathological features were determined using the Student's t test. Log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards model were used for survival analysis.

RESULTS: At first, miR-183-3p was up-regulated in lung cancer tissues when compared with the corresponding noncancerous lung tissues. Moreover, the expression of miR-183-3p in tumor tissue was found to be associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.043), clinical stage (P = 0.015), and EGFR mutation (P = 0.003). At last, high miR-183-3p expression was also associated with both poor overall survival and progression-free survival of women with lung adenocarcinoma (P = 0.005 and P = 0.010, respectively).

CONCLUSION: This study suggested that miR-183-3p expression might be involved in lung cancer pathogenesis and progression, and could be used as a potential prognostic biomarker of female lung adenocarcinoma.