Upregulation of microRNA-25 associates with prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence has shown that up-regulation of microRNA-25(miR-25) is associated with the prognosis of several types of human malignant solid tumors. However, whether miR-25 expression has influence on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unknown. METHODS: The differentially expressed amount of the miR-25 was validated in triplicate by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Survival rate was analyzed by log-rank test, and survival curves were plotted according to Kaplan–Meier. Multivariate analysis of the prognostic factors was performed with Cox regression model. RESULTS: The expression of miR-25 was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues when compared with adjacent normal tissues (p<0.0001). Patients who had high miR-25 expression had a shorter overall survival than patients who had low miR-25 expression (median overall survival, 31.0 months versus 42.9 months, p=0.0192). The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that miR-25 expression (HR=2.179; p=0.001), TNM stage (HR=1.782; p=0.014), and vein invasion (HR=1.624; p=0.020) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that the overexpression of miR-25 in HCC tissues is of predictive value on poor prognosis. VIRTUAL SLIDE: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1989618421114309