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Upregulated miR-16 expression is an independent indicator of relapse and poor overall survival of colorectal adenocarcinoma patients

  • Marios A. Diamantopoulos , Christos K. Kontos , Dimitrios Kerimis , Iordanis N. Papadopoulos and Andreas Scorilas EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 8, 2016
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 55 Issue 5

Abstract

Background:

Colorectal adenocarcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among adults in Western countries. miR-16 is heavily involved in cancer progression. In this study, we examined the potential diagnostic and prognostic utility of miR-16 expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Methods:

Total RNA was extracted from 182 colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens and 86 non-cancerous colorectal mucosae. After polyadenylation of 2 μg total RNA by poly(A) polymerase and subsequent reverse transcription with an oligo-dT adapter primer, miR-16 expression was determined using an in-house developed reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR method, based on SYBR Green chemistry. SNORD43 (RNU43) and SNORD48 (RNU48) were used as reference genes. Next, we performed extensive biostatistical analysis.

Results:

miR-16 was shown to be significantly upregulated in colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens compared to non-cancerous colorectal mucosae, suggesting its potential exploitation for diagnostic purposes. Moreover, high miR-16 expression predicts poor disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of colorectal adenocarcinoma patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that miR-16 overexpression is a significant unfavorable prognosticator in colorectal adenocarcinoma, independent of other established prognostic factors, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Interestingly, miR-16 overexpression retains its unfavorable prognostic value in patients with advanced yet locally restricted colorectal adenocarcinoma that has not grown through the wall of the colon or rectum (T3) and in those without distant metastasis (M0).

Conclusions:

Overexpression of the cancer-associated miR-16 predicts poor DFS and OS of colorectal adenocarcinoma patients, independently of clinicopathological factors that are currently used for prognostic purposes.

Keywords: colon cancer; microRNA-16 (miRNA-16); molecular tumor markers; prognosis; prognostic biomarkers; reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR)

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Supplemental Material:

The online version of this article (DOI: 10.1515/cclm-2016-0756) offers supplementary material, available to authorized users.

Received: 2016-8-26
Accepted: 2016-10-31
Published Online: 2016-12-8
Published in Print: 2017-5-1

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

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  2. Editorial
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  4. Pre-analytical and Analytical Issues of miRNA Measurement
  5. Variability in, variability out: best practice recommendations to standardize pre-analytical variables in the detection of circulating and tissue microRNAs
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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2016-0756
Keywords for this article
colon cancer; microRNA-16 (miRNA-16); molecular tumor markers; prognosis; prognostic biomarkers; reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR)

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Not all good things come in big packages
  4. Pre-analytical and Analytical Issues of miRNA Measurement
  5. Variability in, variability out: best practice recommendations to standardize pre-analytical variables in the detection of circulating and tissue microRNAs
  6. Pitfalls of analysis of circulating miRNA: role of hematocrit
  7. Intraindividual variation of microRNA expression levels in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the associations of these levels with the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases
  8. miRNA assays in the clinical laboratory: workflow, detection technologies and automation aspects
  9. Clinical Applications of the Different Circulating Forms of miRNAs
  10. The role of extracellular vesicle microRNAs in cancer biology
  11. The clinical significance of platelet microparticle-associated microRNAs
  12. microRNAs in lipoprotein and lipid metabolism: from biological function to clinical application
  13. microRNAs in cardiovascular disease – clinical application
  14. miRNAs in Cancer
  15. Non-coding RNAs: the cancer genome dark matter that matters!
  16. miRNAs as novel biomarkers in the management of prostate cancer
  17. Upregulated miR-16 expression is an independent indicator of relapse and poor overall survival of colorectal adenocarcinoma patients
  18. Identification of a novel microRNA, miR-4449, as a potential blood based marker in multiple myeloma
  19. miRNA analysis in pancreatic cancer: the Dartmouth experience
  20. miRNAs and Genomic
  21. miRNAs, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
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