Mir-30e* is an independent subtype-specific prognostic marker in breast cancer

Both gene and miRNA expression patterns separately correlate with survival in breast cancer suggesting that the development of models using both miRNAs and gene markers might improve their prediction performance. In this study miRNAs significantly associated with development of distant metastasis were identified and further investigated and validated in the publicly available dataset from the METABRIC. A combined outcome prediction model using gene expression, miRNA expression and clinico-pathological features was implemented. Fresh-frozen primary tumors were obtained from 123 patients with operable breast cancer previously untreated, pathologically defined as axillary node-negative and undergoing radical or conservative surgery at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milano (INTM) between1990 and 1998. Patients were selected in order to have a comparable pattern of classical risk factors (age, tumor size).