Clinical Significance of Mir-221 in Colorectal Cancer

Aim: MicroRNA-221 plays an important role in a number of human malignancies. The present study was conducted to shed light on the role of mir-221in colorectal cancer as regards the initiation of malignant process and progression.

Methods: Real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the levels of mir-221 in 92 patients with colorectal cancer and in their adjacent non-cancerous tissues and to explore the relation between mir-221 level and clinical and pathological features of the disease.

Results: Mir-221 was up-regulated in 90.2% (83/92) of colorectal cancer tissue samples compared with their adjacent non-cancerous tissue samples. The high expression of mir-221 was significantly correlated to tumor size and infiltration, clinical stage and lymph node metastasis. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that over expression of mir-221 was an unfavorable prognostic indicator for overall survival in colorectal cancer patients.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest mir-221 may be used as a prognostic marker in CRC and it needs more studies to be used as a potential diagnostic marker and as a molecular target for targeted cancer therapy.