Background: Current staging systems are inadequate for evaluating the prognosis of patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC, stages II-III). Therefore, we developed a serum microRNA (miRNA) signature to facilitate individualized management of these patients. Methods: Using microarray analysis, we analyzed 12 serum specimens based on different prognoses (good survival group, n = 7; poor survival group, n = 5). We identified and confirmed differential expression of these miRNAs using quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) of serum from 51 patients with LAGC. A three miRNA-based classifier was established as a training set by Cox proportional hazard regression and risk-score analysis. We validated the prognostic accuracy of this model in an internal validation cohort (Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, SYSUCC validation cohort, n = 50) and an external independent cohort (Beijing Cancer Hospital, BJCH cohort, n = 67). Results: Three miRNAs were found to be associated with survival of LAGC (P < 0.001 for miR-132, P = 0.011 for miR-548a-3p, and P < 0.001 for miR-1826). A three-miRNA signature was developed for the training set, and a significant difference was found between the survival of low- and high-risk score patients (P < 0.01). The combination of the miRNA signature and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage exhibited superior discrimination. Consistent results were obtained by further validation of the internal set and the BJCH set, which confirmed the predictive value of the model. Conclusions: We built an easy-to-use prognostic signature using three serum miRNAs as markers. Our miRNA signature may improve postoperative risk stratification and serve as a complement to the TNM staging system.
Keywords: advanced gastric cancer; microRNA; prognosis; serum; survival.
Copyright © 2020 Chen, Lao, Geng, Zhang, Wu and Xu.