title: Increased expression of microRNA-21and its association with chemotherapeutic response in human colorectal cancer.
abstract: The expression of microRNA-21 (miR-21) was determined in 42 patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The level of miR-21 in CRC tumour tissue was compared with paired normal adjacent tissue (NAT) and the relationships  of miR-21 levels to clinicopathological characteristics and pathological tumour response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy were investigated. There was a significantly higher level of miR-21 in CRC tumour tissue than in NAT and high expression of miR-21 was significantly correlated with advanced  clinical stage and poor cell differentiation. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated a maximum optimal cut-off cycle threshold value of 10.32 for differentiating pathological responders from non-responders, with a sensitivity of 80.0% and specificity of 88.2%. These data  showed that miR-21 was significantly overexpressed in CRC tumour tissue and was associated with advanced CRC, and that miR-21 may be a potential candidate biomarker for predicting pathological tumour response to chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; C524940:MIRN21 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs