The good, the bad and the ugly: a tale of miR-101, miR-21 and miR-155 in pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms

7 Surgery, 8 Pathology; 9 (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.37-5.65, P= 0.0047). Patients with high-miR-21 expression also had a shorter median DFS (10.9 versus 29.9 months, P= 0.01). Multivariate analysis confirmed miR-21 as independently prognostic for mortality and disease progression (death risk: HR = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.5-7.0, P= 0.02; progression risk: HR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.2-4.8, P = 0.02), as well as positive lymph-node status (death risk: HR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.1-6.3, P = 0.03; progression risk: HR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.0-4.8, P = 0.04). Conclusions: miR-21, miR-155 and miR-101 showed significant differences in invasive versus non-invasive IPMNs. miR-21 emerged as an independent prognostic biomarker in invasive IPMNs and should be validated in prospective studies.