micro ribonucleic acid-21 (miRNA 21) is overexpressed in multiple solid tumors, indicating that its biology is relevant to different type of cancers, in colorectal cancer (CRC), a lot of studies suggested its use as a diagnostic marker. Others as a predictive for 5-flurouracil (5 FU) sensitivity. This study was conducted to verified the significance of miRNA 21 as a prognostic and predictive marker in CRC.
Patients and methods: It is a prospective study included 45 patients with stage I - IV CRC who attended at South Egypt Cancer Institute (SECI) from May 2017 to September 2018. miRNA 21 was measured by Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (q PCR) from peripheral blood sample and its levels of expression was correlated to the clinco pathological features of the studied patients, response to 5FU containing regimen which was assessed by response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST criteria) and to the survival.
Results: High expression of the miRNA21 was significantly associated with advanced stage of CRC p < 0.001, lymph node (LN) invasion p < 0.001, distant metastasis p< 0.01, lymphovascular invasion (LVI) p <0.01 and pre treatment level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) p <0.031. Also we found that high expression of miRNA21was significantly had a bad effect on the response to 5FU containing regimen p < 0.001, disease free survival (DFS) p < 0.01 and overall survival (OS) p <0.01.
Conclusion: miRNA 21 could be used as a non invasive prognostic and predictive marker in CRC.