title: The prognostic value of microRNAs varies with patient race/ethnicity and stage of colorectal cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  MicroRNAs (miRNA) have potential prognostic value for colorectal cancers; however, their value based on patient race/ethnicity and pathologic stage has not been determined. The goal was to ascertain the prognostic value of 5 miRNAs with increased expression in colorectal cancers of African American (black) and non-Hispanic Caucasian (white) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  TaqMan quantitative real-time PCR was used to quantify expression of miR-20a, miR-21, miR-106a, miR-181b, and miR-203 in paired normal and tumor colorectal cancer archival tissues collected from 106 black and 239 white patients. The results were correlated with overall survival based on patient race/ethnicity and pathologic stage. Because decisions about adjuvant therapy are important for stage III colorectal cancers, and because miR-181b seemed to have prognostic value only for stage III black patients, we assessed its prognostic value in a separate cohort of 36 stage III colorectal cancers of blacks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All 5 miRNAs had higher expression in colorectal cancers (>1.0-fold) than in corresponding normal tissues. High expression of miR-203 was associated with poor survival of whites with stage IV colorectal cancers (HR = 3.00; 95% CI, 1.29-7.53), but in blacks it was an indicator of poor survival of patients with stages I and II colorectal cancers (HR = 5.63; 95% CI, 1.03-30.64). Increased miR-21 expression correlated with poor prognosis for white stage IV patients (HR = 2.50; 95% CI, 1.07-5.83). In both test and validation cohorts, high miR-181b expression correlated with poor survival of only black patients with stage III colorectal cancers (HR = 1.94; 95% CI, 1.03-3.67).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These preliminary findings suggest that the prognostic value of miRNAs in colorectal cancers varies with patient race/ethnicity and stage of disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA.
authors.forename: Liselle C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Bovell
authors.forename: Chandrakumar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shanmugam
authors.forename: Balananda-Dhurjati K
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Putcha
authors.forename: Venkat R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Katkoori
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Sejong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Karan P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Grizzle
authors.forename: Upender
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Manne
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C542541:MIRN106 microRNA, human; C546703:MIRN203 microRNA, human; C534451:MIRN20a microRNA, human; C524940:MIRN21 microRNA, human; C540193:MIrn181 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs