Correlation of c-MET expression with circulating miR-34a and miR-449 level in pancreatic cancer tissue / 中华胰腺病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the correlation of c-MET expression with circulating miR-34a and miR-449 level in pancreatic cancer tissue and its clinical significance.Methods:A total of 41 patients with pancreatic cancer treated surgically and pathologically confirmed from March 2015 to March 2017 were collected in Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing Medical College. The expression of hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-MET) in pathological tissues and matching adjacent normal tissues was determined by immunohistochemistry. The patients were divided into c-MET positive group ( n=26) and c-MET negative group ( n=15) according to the results. Peripheral blood was collected before and 3 months after the operation, and the expressions of circulating miRNA34a (miR-34a) and miR-449 were determined by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The relationships between c-MET in pancreatic cancer tissue and clinicopathological features, prognosis, circulating miR-34a expression, and miR-449 expression were analyzed. The effects of circulating miR-34a and miR-449 expression on TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients were analyzed. Results:The positive rate of c-MET in pancreatic cancer was obviously higher than that in adjacent normal tissue (63.4% vs 24.4%), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Compared with c-MET negative group, the TNM stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ cases in c-MET positive group were more (73.1% vs 33.4%), the lymph node metastasis rate in c-MET positive group (76.9% vs 46.7%) were higher, and the follow-up survival time of c-MET positive group was shorter (29.5 mo vs 35 mo), and the survival rate of the c-MET positive group was lower (38.5% vs 53.3%), and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Before surgery, the expressions of circulating miR-34a and miR-449 in the c-MET positive group were lower than those in the c-MET negative group (0.228±0.068 vs 0.524±0.106, 0.252± 0.063 vs 0.432±0.094, P<0.05). After surgery, the miR-449 expression in c-MET positive group was still lower than that in c-MET negative group (0.414±0.088 vs 0.512±0.114, P<0.05), while there was no statistically significant difference on miR-34a between the two groups. Preoperative miR-34a and miR-449 expression had predictive value for TNM stage, lymphatic metastasis and prognosis ( P<0.05). Conclusions:miR-34a and miR-449 may target c-MET in pancreatic cancer tissue, which could be used as potential tumor markers for pancreatic cancer.