title: Down-regulation of microRNA-124 is correlated with tumor metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with lung cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNA-124 (miR-124) has been proven dysregulated in several human malignancies and correlated with tumor progression. However, its expression and clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still unclear. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of miR-124 expression in NSCLC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Expression levels of miR-124 in 92 pairs of NSCLC and adjacent non-tumor tissues were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). In order to determine its prognostic value, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazard analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  miR-124 expression level was significantly lower in NSCLC tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues (P < 0.05). The 5-year OS of low miR-124 expression group was significantly shorter than that of high miR-124 expression group (P < 0.05). Moreover, the 5-year DFS of low miR-124 expression group was also significantly shorter than that of high miR-124 expression group (P < 0.05). In a multivariate Cox model, we found that miR-124 expression was an independent prognostic factor for both 5-year OS and 5-year DFS in NSCLC (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results offer the convincing evidence that miR-124 may play key roles in the progression of lung cancer and that the down-regulated expression of miR-124 may be independently associated with shorter OS and DFS of patients, suggesting that miR-124 might be a potential marker for further risk stratification in the treatment of lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiration Medicine, Huaihe Hospital of HeNan University Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Yajun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiration Medicine, Huaihe Hospital of HeNan University Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Hongbing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiration Medicine, Huaihe Hospital of HeNan University Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Jichang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiration Medicine, Huaihe Hospital of HeNan University Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Yijie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: C509207:MIRN124 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer; disease-free survival; miR-124; overall survival