Prognostic Implications of MicroRNA-21 Overexpression in Invasive Ductal Carcinomas of the Breast.
OBJECTIVE
Among more than 500 microRNAs, microRNA-21 (miR-21) is known to act as an oncogene. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of miR-21 expression level in relation with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in breast cancer.


METHODS
MicroRNA was extracted from cancer and normal breast tissue of 109 breast cancer patients who underwent surgery from 2002 to 2004 using the Taqman® MicroRNA Assay. The correlation between miR-21 expression and clinicopathologic features was analyzed and the significance of miR-21 as a prognostic factor and its relationship with survival was determined.


RESULTS
MiR-21 expression was higher in cancer tissues than in normal tissues (p<0.0001). High miR-21 expression was associated with mastectomy, larger tumor size, higher stage, higher grade, estrogen receptor (ER) negative, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive, HER2 positive breast cancer subtype, high Ki-67 expression, and death. On multivariate analysis, prognostic factors for overall survival were ER and miR-21. High miR-21 expression was significantly related to lower overall survival (p=0.031).


CONCLUSIONS
This study supports the role of miR-21 as an oncogene and a biomarker for breast cancer with its high expression in cancer tissues and its relationship with other prognostic factors and survival.
Department of Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Jung Ah
JA
Lee
Hye Yoon
HY
Lee
Eun Sook
ES
Lee
Insun
I
Kim
Jeoung Won
JW
Bae