Identification of microRNA-143 as a prognostic marker for survival in patients with osteosarcoma

MicroRNA-143 (miR-143) expression has been demonstrated to be significantly decreased in osteosarcoma tissues. However, its clinical significance in osteosarcoma is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of miR-143 expression with clinicopathologic features and prognosis in patients with osteosarcoma. Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to detect expression levels of miR-143 in osteosarcoma and noncancerous bone tissues from 150 patients with primary osteosarcomas. Then, the clinical significance of miR-143 expression in osteosarcomas was determined. Compared with noncancerous bone tissues, the expression levels of miR-143 were significantly lower in osteosarcoma tissues (P< 0.001). Lower miR-143 expression occurred more frequently in osteosarcoma tissues with large tumor size (P=0.005), advanced clinical stage (P=0.003) and positive distant metastasis (P=0.008). Moreover, the univariate analysis demonstrated that osteosarcoma patients with low miR-143 expression had poorer overall (P< 0.001) and disease-free survival (P< 0.001). Furthermore, the multivariate analysis identified low miR-143 expression as an independent prognostic factor for both overall (P=0.002) and disease-free survival (P=0.004) by Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. For the first time, the current data offer convincing evidence that the low miR-143 levels could serve as a prognostic indicator of poor survival and metastasis in osteosarcoma.