The expression of miR-25 is increased in colorectal cancer and is associated with patient prognosis

MicroRNA-25 (miR-25) has recently been found to be involved in many critical processes in human malignancies. We aimed to investigate the expression pattern and prognostic role of miR-25 in colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer and adjacent normal specimens from 186 patients who had not received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were collected. The expression of miR-25 was detected with a quantitative real-time PCR assay, and the association of miR-25 with overall patient survival was analyzed via statistical analysis. The results indicated that the level of miR-25 expression was significantly elevated in colorectal cancer compared with the level observed in the adjacent normal tissue. It was also demonstrated that miR-25 expression is associated with tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and the TNM stage of colorectal cancer. In addition, a Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that an increased level of miR-25 expression is associated with a poor overall survival of patients. A multivariate survival analysis also indicated that miR-25 is an independent prognostic marker after adjusting for known prognostic factors. These results prove that miR-25 expression is increased in colorectal cancer and is associated with tumor progression. This study also provides the first evidence that miR-25 is an independent prognostic factor for patients with colorectal cancer, indicating the potential role of miR-25 as a highly specific and sensitive biomarker.