Decreased expression of miR-495 is associated with poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether miR-495 is a factor influencing survival in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRTPCR) was performed to evaluate the expression level of miR-495 in 186 participants. Then the association between tissue miR-495 expression level and clinical outcome was investigated. Overall survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate analysis of the prognostic factors was performed with Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The expression level of miR-495 was significantly decreased in renal cancer tissues compared with that in normal matched tissues, and a high expression of miR-495 was found to be significantly associated with Histologic grade (p=0.000), Lymph nodemetastasis (p=0.000), and Distant metastasis (p < 0.001). In addition, the results of Log-rank test indicated that ccRCC patients with low miR-495 expression experienced shorter overall survival. Multivariate analysis suggested that miR-495 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of patients with ccRCC. Conclusions: Our results indicate that miR-495 relates to the prognosis of patients with ccRCC and may act as a promising predictor of ccRCC recurrence.