MiR-133a is downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer: a study of clinical significance

BACKGROUND Despite present studies which suggested miR-133a as a promising biomarker for several cancers, there still exist no articles concerning the validated clinical significance of miR-133a in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Therefore, in this study, we targeted the correlation between miR-133a expression and clinicopathological significance in NSCLC patients. METHODS The expression of miR-133a in 125 cases of NSCLC and their paired adjacent non-cancerous tissues was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Meanwhile, the relationship between miR-133a expression and several clinicopathological parameters and patient survival was analyzed. RESULTS The relative level of miR-133a was 2.0108 ± 1.3334 in NSCLC tissues, significantly lower than that of the adjacent non-cancerous lung tissues (3.6430 ± 2.2625, P = 0.019). The area under curve (AUC) of low expression of miR-133a to diagnose NSCLC was 0.760 (95% CI: 0.702 ~ 0.819, P < 0.001). MiR-133a expression was negatively correlated to lymphatic metastasis (r = -0.182, P = 0.042), tumor size (r = -0.253, P = 0.04), clinical TNM stages (r = -0.154, P = 0.087), and EGFR protein expression (r = -0.612, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS MiR-133a serves as a tumor-suppressive miRNA in human NSCLC, and its downregulation suggests deterioration in NSCLC patients.