miRNA-96 might serve as potential biomarkers for cervical cancer

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women around the world, followed by breast cancer, and remains to be a major health care problem in developing countries. MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNAs which regulate posttranscriptionally the gene expression, thereby it is implicated in a wide range of biological processes including cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Methods: Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction technology was used to detect the expression of miRNA-96 in 122 cervical cancer tissues, 96 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) tissues and 84 normal tissues. The associations of miRNA-96 expression with clinicopathologic variables were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to analyze the association of miRNA-96 expression with overall survival (OS) of patients. Results: The expression level of miRNA-96 in cervical cancer tissues was higher than that in CIN tissues and normal cervical tissues. These were significant differences (P < 0.05). The expression level of miRNA-96 in CIN tissues was also higher than that in normal cervical tissues. The expression level of miRNA-96 in cervical cancer tissues was significantly associated with histological grade (P < 0.05), FIGO stage (P < 0.05), and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the survival rate of patients with higher miRNA-96 levels was significantly lower than that of patients with lower miRNA-96 expression levels. Conclusions: The miRNA-96 might serve as potential biomarkers for cervical cancer.