Low serum miR-98 as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Blood-circulating miRNAs have been reported to act as potential biomarkers in various cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Objective: This study was to assess serum miR-98 levels in NSCLC patients and explore its potential prognostic value.

Methods: The relative expression levels of miR-98 were detected by quantitative RT-PCR in the sera of 127 NSCLC patients and 60 healthy controls.

Results: Our results showed that serum miR-98 expression was down-regulated in NSCLC patients compared with healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested that serum miR-98 could be used as a potential marker in the diagnosis of NSCLC. In addition, decreased serum miR-98 was positively correlated with worse TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, as well as unfavorable overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that serum miR-98 expression was an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC.

Conclusions: Therefore, serum miR-98 might be useful as a promising biomarker for prognosis prediction of NSCLC.