Identifying high-risk stage II colon cancer patients: a three microRNA-based score as a prognostic biomarker

• Published in: Clinical colorectal cancer 2016-12, Vol.15 (4), p.e175-e182
• Main Authors: Caritg, Oriol, Navarro, Alfons, Moreno, Isabel, Martínez-Rodenas, Francisco, Cordeiro, Anna, Muñoz, Carmen, Ruiz-Martinez, Marc, Santasusagna, Sandra, Castellano, Joan Josep, Monzó, Mariano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjuvant chemotherapy; Adult; Aged; Area Under Curve; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Colonic Neoplasms - genetics; Colonic Neoplasms - mortality; Colonic Neoplasms - pathology; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Gene Expression Profiling; Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; MicroRNAs - analysis; MicroRNAs - biosynthesis; Middle Aged; miR-103a; miR-143-5p; miR-215; Prognosis; Risk Factors; ROC Curve; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 1533-0028; 1938-0674
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clcc.2016.04.008

Abstract Purpose The potential benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in surgically resected patients with stage II colorectal cancer is controversial. Current guidelines based solely on clinical factors have a limited usefulness and there is a clear need for biomarkers to supplement clinical information. MicroRNAs have been previously shown to be useful cancer biomarkers. In this work, we assess the usefulness of a microRNA score to help identifying the subset of high-risk patients likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods Six microRNAs previously identified as prognostic markers in Asian patients (miR-21-5p, miR-20a-5p, miR-103a-3p, miR-106b-5p, miR-143-5p, and miR-215) were studied in tumor samples from 71 Caucasian stage II colon cancer patients. Results Three microRNAs (miR-103a-3p, miR-143-5p and miR-215) emerged as independent prognostic markers in the multivariate analysis and were used to construct a microRNA-based score that classified patients in high/low-risk groups. Patients in the high-risk group had a significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) compared to their low-risk counterparts (p=0.003). The time-dependent ROC curve analysis showed that our three microRNA score improved the prediction of outcome when added to clinical features (p=0.023). Conclusions A three microRNA score adds valuable prognostic information to clinical features in stage II colon cancer. Further research in this field could provide useful tools to decide whether adjuvant chemotherapy would benefit surgical stage II colon cancer patients.