MicroRNA-155 acts as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma

MicroRNA-155 is over-expressed in many human cancers, but researches on its association with malignant oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) are limited. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential value of miR-155 as a biomarker for ESCC diagnosis and prognosis. In this study, we found that miR-155 was significantly increased in ESCC tissues compared with the paired adjacent tissues and healthy normal controls (p miR-155 might act as an oncogene in ESCC. In addition, clinical features such as the depth of tumour invasion, tumour size, and TNM stage were all proved to impact the expression of miR-155 (p miR-155 was a predictive factor for ESCC. As well, high expression of miR-155 was associated with poor overall survival of the patients (log-rank test, p = .004), according to Kaplan-Meier analysis. MiR-155 might be an independent predictor for overall survival in ESCC patients, manifested by Cox regression analysis (HR = 16.94, 95%CI = 3.33–86.12, p = .001). Taken together, miR-155 could be an independent diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for ESCC.

微小RNA-155（microRNA-155）在多种人类癌症中呈过表达状态，但针对其与恶性食管鳞状细胞癌（ESCC）的关联研究仍较为有限。本研究旨在评估miR-155作为ESCC诊断与预后生物标志物的潜在应用价值。本研究发现，相较于配对癌旁组织及健康对照人群，ESCC组织中miR-155的表达水平显著升高（p值差异具有统计学意义），提示miR-155在ESCC中可能发挥癌基因的作用。此外，肿瘤浸润深度、肿瘤大小及TNM分期等临床特征均被证实与miR-155的表达水平显著相关（p值差异具有统计学意义），提示miR-155可作为ESCC的预测因子。经Kaplan-Meier分析（Kaplan-Meier analysis）显示，miR-155高表达与ESCC患者较差的总生存期密切相关（对数秩检验（log-rank test），p=0.004）。通过Cox回归分析（Cox regression analysis）进一步证实，miR-155可作为ESCC患者总生存期的独立预测因子（风险比HR=16.94，95%置信区间95%CI=3.33~86.12，p=0.001）。综上，miR-155可作为ESCC的独立诊断及预后生物标志物。