Down-regulation of miR-1236-3p is correlated with clinical progression and unfavorable prognosis in gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE: MiRNAs have been considered to participate in many processes of various cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). However, the significance of miRNAs in the progression prognosis of GC is largely unknown. The goal of this study was to determine the expression level of miR-1236-3p in GC and its clinical association. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinical specimens from GC patients were obtained to quantify the expression level of miR-1236-3p using quantitative Real-time PCR. The correlation between the miR-1236-3p levels and the clinicopathological factors of the GC patients was analyzed. The association between miR-1236-3p expression and overall survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The significance of different variables with respect to survival was analyzed using the univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: We found that miR-1236-3p was significantly downregulated in GC tissues compared to non-tumor gastric tissues (p < 0.01). The levels of miR-1236-3p expression were associated significantly with clinical stage (p = 0.002), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.000) and distant metastasis (p = 0.017). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients in the high miR-1236-3p expression group had better overall survival than those in the low miR-1236-3p expression group (p = 0.0039). Moreover, we confirmed that miR-1236-3p was an independent poor prognostic factor for GC patients through univariate and multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide evidence that miR-1236-3p expression is frequently decreased in GC tissues, and its low expression may be a significant prognostic factor for poor survival in GC patients.