High serum miR-203 predicts the poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer

Altered expression of microRNAs ( miRNAs) has been demonstrated to promote the progression of many types of malignancy including pancreatic cancer ( PC). However, the correlation between serum miR-203 expression and the prognosis of PC remains unknown. In this study, a total of 96 PC patients, 20 patients with benign pancreatic tumor, 30 patients with chronic pancreatitis and 30 healthy controls were recruited. The expression level of serum miR-203 in the participants was examined by real-time PCR. Then the association between serum miR-203 levels with clinical variables as well as survival time was investigated. Our results showed that serum miR-203 levels were significantly up-regulated in patients with PC (P < 0.01) and its levels were remarkably downregulated in those who received surgical resection (P < 0.01). In addition, serum miR-203 levels were correlated with various clinicopathological parameters including N stage, histological grade and TNM stage. Furthermore, PC patients with serum miR-203 overexpression had poorer 5 year overall survival and disease free survival rates (P=0.016 and P=0.004, respectively). Finally, serum miR-203 expression was demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for PC (P < 0.05). Overall, up-regulated expression of serum miR-203 is correlated with poor prognosis in PC and might be a promising prognostic biomarker for this malignancy.