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MicroRNA-503 promotes tumor progression and acts as a novel biomarker for prognosis in oesophageal cancer.

AIM
This study investigated microRNA (miR)-503 expression levels and evaluated its clinical significance in patients with oesophageal cancer (EC).


MATERIALS AND METHODS
miR-503 expression was quantified by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in 49 EC tissue samples and 12 adjacent normal tissues from 49 patients with EC. The association between miR-503 expression and clinicopathological factors, including prognostic outcomes, were assessed.


RESULTS
miR-503 was found up-regulated in EC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. High miR-503 expression was significantly associated with large tumor size. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with high miR-503 expression had significantly poorer disease-free and overall survival than those with lower expression levels. High miR-503 expression was identified as an independent prognostic predictor in patients with EC according to multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSION
miR-503 expression affects tumor cell proliferation in EC. Evaluation of miR-503 expression might thus help identify patients with EC with poor prognosis and higher risk of early recurrence.