MicoRNA-425-5p is a potential prognostic biomarker for cervical cancer

Background: MicroRNAs have been implicated in many biological pathways involved in tumourigenesis and can serve as prognostic biomarkers in many cancer types. The present study aims at evaluating the prognostic significance of miR-4255p in cervical cancer. Methods: Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to assess the expression levels of miR-425-5p in 35 pairs of cervical cancer tissues and their matched normal tissues as well as serum samples from 40 cervical cancer patients, 13 benign cervical disease patients and 32 healthy controls. The association between miR-425-5p expression levels in tissue and serum, and clinicopathological factors was examined. The correlation between serum miR-425-5p expression levels and overall survival of cervical cancer patients was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards model. Results: MiR-425-5p expression levels were significantly increased in cervical cancer tissues compared with matched non-cancerous tissues. Higher expression of miR-425-5p was positively associated with high tumour stage (P = 0.0003) and positive lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0107). Serum concentrations of miR-425-5p in cervical cancer patients were significantly higher compared with benign cervical disease and healthy controls. Moreover, the up-regulation of serum miR-425-5p occurred more frequently in cervical cancer patients with high TNM stage (P = 0.0003) and positive lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0037). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that high serum miR-425-5p expression levels predicted poor survival (P = 0.0571). Cox proportional hazards risk analysis demonstrated that miR-425-5p was an independent prognostic factor for cervical cancer. Conclusion: Our study suggests that miR-425-5p is up-regulated in cervical cancer and serum miR-425-5p may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for cervical cancer.