miR-140 and miR-196a as Potential Biomarkers in Breast Cancer Patients

OBJECTIVE: MiR-140 and miR-196a were known to be correlated with cancer diagnosis and prognosis. The current study aimed at the analysis of miR-140 and miR-196a expression patterns and their clinical significance for breast cancer (BC) patients. METHODS: Differentially expressed miR-140 and miR-196a were examined via quantitative PCR in 110 cases of BC and their adjacent non-tumor (ANT) tissues. RESULTS: The results indicated that miR-140 and miR-196a, respectively, notably decreased and increased expression in BC samples in comparison with ANT (p<0.001). Reduced miR-140 expression was also related to Lymph node metastasis (LNM, P= 0.023) and stage (P = 0.009). Additionally, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis illustrated that miR-140 had a significant diagnostic accuracy for stage and LNM of BC patients. We also discovered a strong negative correlation between miR-196a expression with histological grade (P = 0.038), LNM (P = 0.012) and stage (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Overall, exploring the miR-140 and miR-196a profiles not only can statistically different among BC and ANT samples, but it is also expected to become potential BC biomarkers.