Low expression of miR-1469 predicts disease progression and unfavorable post-surgical clinical outcomes in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer

Recent studies have demonstrated that deregulated microRNA (miRNA/miR) expression has a profound impact on biological and pathological processes; abnormal miR-1469 expression was detected in several human malignancies. In the present study, the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of miR-1469 was assessed in 129 patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) who successfully underwent esophagectomy and esophagogastrostomy. Low miR-1469 expression was identified to be significantly associated with tumor invasion depth (P=0.026), lymph node metastasis status (P<0.001) and pathological tumor stage (P<0.001). Survival analysis demonstrated that patients with low miR-1469 expression had significantly poorer disease-free survival (DFS) (18.2 vs. 43.2%; P=0.004) and overall survival (29.1 vs. 47.3%; P=0.029) 5 years following surgery compared with patients with high miR-1469 expression. Univariate survival analysis demonstrated that low miR-1469 expression significantly predicted unfavorable 5-year DFS among patients with N1-3 disease (7.1 vs. 31.8%; P=0.043). The results from the present study indicate that miR-1469 expression could be used in the clinic to predict ESCC progression and prognosis. This will aid in the identification of high-risk patients with ESCC that require more aggressive therapeutic interventions.