[Clinical significance of miRNA-204 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of miRNA-204 in patients with NPC and to analyze the as- sociation of the expression with the cIinicopathologicaI features and prognosis.

METHOD: The expression levels of miRNA-204 in 50 patients with NPC and 40 patients with nasopharyngeal chronic inflammation were detected by using stem-loop real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction RT-PCR. Analysis of the relationship between microRNA and prognosis by Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULT: Expression levels of miRNA-204 were down- regulated in patients with NPC as compared with patients with nasopharyngeal chronic inflammation (P < 0.05). The expression of miRNA-204 was associated with EBV infection, differentiation, lymphatic metastasis and TNM stages (P < 0.05). Low miRNA-204 expression was significantly correlated with shorter overall survival (P < 0.05) of NPC.

CONCLUSION: The downregulation of miRNA-204 expression has related with disease progression and miRNA-204 can serve as a potential therapeutic target for NPC.