ObjectiveTo explore expression, clinical and biological significance of plasma miRNA-196a from patients with advanced gastric cancer.MethodsReal time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) method was used to detect the miRNA-196a levels in tissues and plasma from 75 gastric cancer patients and 35 benign gastric lesions controls. Then clinic pathological correlations of plasma miRNA-196a in 75 gastric cancer patients were analyzed. Twenty-five gastric cancer patients were randomized selected from 75 patients, to compare plasma miRNA-196a levels between preoperation and postoperation. Meanwhile, the effect of miRNA-196a on the invasion ability of gastric cancer MGC-803 cell line was observed in vitro.ResultsThe levels of miRNA-196a in both plasma and tissues from 75 gastric cancer patients were significantly increased compared with 35 benign gastric lesions controls (P<0.000 1). Clinic pathological data of 75 gastric cancer patients showed that the expressions of miRNA-196a were significantly up-regulated in gastric cancer patients with serosal invasion (P<0.001), lymph node metastasis (P=0.004), distant metastasis (P<0.001) and late clinical stage (P<0.001). The expression of miRNA-196a in peripheral plasma of patients with gastric cancer was significantly down regulated after operation (P<0.000 1). In vitro, overexpression of miRNA-196a significantly increased the invasion ability of MGC-803 cells (P<0.05), whereas knockdown of endogenous miRNA-196a significantly inhibited the invasion ability of MGC-803 cells (P<0.05).ConclusionsThe expression of miRNA-196a is up-regulated not only in peripheral plasma of patients with gastric cancer, but also with the progression of gastric cancer (serosal invasion, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis). The up-regulation of miRNA-196a expression in peripheral plasma is mainly due to the release of primary tumor tissue. miRNA-196a is expected to be a prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for advanced gastric cancer.
Objective To determine whether neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are important prognostic factors in patients with colorectal cancer, and to clarify relationship between NLR or PLR and TNM staging in colorectal cancer. Methods The clinical data of 304 patients with colorectal cancer who were admitted to the same medical group from January 2013 to December 2013 in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University were analyzed retrospectively. The relationship between NLR or PLR and the clinicopathologic characteristics and its effects on prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer were analyzed. Results The critical values of NLR (sensitivity=51.0%, specificity=75.4%, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve=0.66) and PLR (sensitivity=73.0%, specificity=46.4%, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve=0.60) was 2.27 and 155.92, respectively, with a 3-year cumulative survival rate as the end point. According to the critical values of NLR and PLR, there were 133 cases in a low NLR group (NLR≤2.27), 171 cases in a high NLR group (NLR>2.27), 207 cases in a low PLR group (PLR≤155.92), 97 cases in a high PLR group (PLR>155.92). ① The 3-year survival rate was 91.5% and 77.2% in the low NLR group and the high NLR group, respectively, which was 89.0% and 72.8% in the low PLR group and the high PLR group, respectively. The survival curves of NLR and PLR on prognosis prediction had significant differences (P=0.002, P=0.001). ② The results of multivariate analysis showed that the NLR was the independent risk factor for colorectal cancer (P=0.004), whereas PLR was not the independent risk factor for colorectal cancer (P=0.408). ③ The NLR and PLR were associated with the tumor TNM staging (P=0.002, P=0.000), which in the colorectal cancer with stage Ⅳ was significantly higher than those with stage Ⅰ–Ⅲ (P<0.05). ④ The NLR and PLR were associated with T stage (P=0.006, P=0.031). The NLR in the colorectal cancer with stage T4 was significantly higher than that with stage Ⅰ (P=0.015) or stage Ⅱ (P=0.032). The PLR in the colorectal cancer with stage T4 was significantly higher than that with stage Ⅱ (P=0.013). ⑤ The NLR was not associated with N staging (P=0.118). The PLR was associated with N staging (P=0.007), which in the colorectal cancer with N2 stage was significantly higher than that with N0 stage (P=0.008) or N1 stage (P=0.019). ⑥ The NLR and PLR in the colorectal cancer with stage M1/M2 were significantly higher than those with stage M0 (P=0.004, P=0.001). Conclusions Preliminary results of this study show that NLR is an important independent prognostic indicator for patient with colorectal cancer. While PLR is significantly increased when lymph node metastasis occurs, and platelet elevation might be related to lymph node metastasis.