Objective: To explore the clinical significance of miRNA-216a expression in pancreatic cancer.
Methods: Fourteen patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy and 6 patients with benign pancreas lesions were examined for miR-216a expressions in the tumor or lesion tissues using Agilent Human miRNA Microarray (V12.0). The relationship between miR-216a expressions and the clinicopathological features of the patients was analyzed.
Results: The expression of miRNA-216a was significantly lower in pancreatic cancer than in benign pancreas lesions (P=0.000). The expression of miRNA-216a was significantly correlated with the T stage of the tumor (P=0.002), but not with the patients' age, gender, smoking status, tumor stage, lymph node metastases, distant metastasis, tumor differentiation, nerve invasion, vessel invasion or serum CA19-9 level (P>0.05).
Conclusions: The down-regulated expression of miR-216a in pancreatic cancer suggests the involvement of miR-216a in the tumorigenesis and development of pancreatic cancer. miR-216a may potentially serve as a novel tumor marker and also a prognostic factor for pancreatic cancer.