Distinctive microRNA profiles relating to patient survival in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Homo sapiens

We have investigated expressed microRNA in cryo-preserved esophageal cancer tissues using advanced microRNA microarray techniques. Our microarray analyses reveal a unique microRNA expression signature composed of 40 genes which can distinguish normal from malignant esophageal tissue. Some microRNAs could be correlated with the different clinico-pathological classifications. For example, high hsa-miR-103, -107, -23b expression correlated with poor overall disease-free survival of esophageal cancer patients. These results indicate that microRNA expression profiles are important diagnostic and prognostic markers of esophageal cancer, which might be analyzed simply using economical approaches such as RT-PCR. Keywords: microRNA, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma Overall design: cancer vs adjacent normal tissues