IL-6 and miR-1271 expression levels in elderly and young gastric cancer patients and correlation analysis with prognosis

Differences in inflammatory factors IL-6 and miR-1271 expression levels between elderly and young gastric cancer patients were investigated. A retrospective analysis of 146 cases of gastric cancer tissue and normal fresh tissue specimens diagnosed in The First Hospital of Lanzhou University from January 2013 to January 2015, was performed. Patients aged ≥60 years were the elderly group (76 cases), and patients ≤40 years were the youth group (70 cases). RT-qPCR was used to detect the relative expression levels of IL-6 and miR-1271, and Kaplan-Meier for a postoperative 3-year survival analysis of young and elderly gastric cancer patients. The expression level of IL-6 and miR-1271 was significantly higher in young gastric cancer tissues than that in elderly gastric cancer tissues (P<0.001). The expression levels of IL-6 and miR-1271 were correlated with age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, clinical stage and differentiation degree of gastric cancer patients (P<0.05). The 3-year overall survival rate of patients with a low expression of IL-6 and miR-1271 was better than that of patients with a high expression in young and elderly gastric cancer (P<0.05). IL-6 was highly expressed but miR-1271 expression was low in gastric cancer tissues. The 3-year overall survival rate of patients with the low expression of IL-6 was better than that of patients with the high expression in young and elderly gastric cancer. The high expression of miR-1271 was better than that of patients with the low expression in young and elderly gastric cancer. Findings of the present study provide data support for the clinical evaluation of differences between young and elderly gastric cancer and their prognosis.