Unpredictable changes of selected miRNA in expression profile of HNSCC

The necessity of prediction and treatment outcome improvement of HNSCC needs to find new biomarkers. miRNAs seem to be good candidate for that.

Analysis of selected 5 miRNAs (let-7d, miR-18a, miR-21, miR-205 and miR-375) as potential biomarkers that allows to distinguish tumor and healthy tissue taken from HNSCC patients.

Tumor and normal epithelial tissues were obtained from 75 HNSCC patients to analyze selected miRNAs.

Analysis indicated significant increase of miR-21 and miR-205 in tumor when compared with healthy tissue (p= 0.0069 and p= 0.0029, respectively). There was a significant correlation between let-7d and miR-18a. let-7d was down-regulated in 34.67% cases, miR-18a in 29.33%, miR-21 in 20%, miR-205 in 30.67% and miR-375 in 52% cases. At the same time over-expression of let-7d was detected in 18.67% cases, miR-18a in 22.67%, miR-21 in 48%, miR-205 in 41.33% and miR-375 in 52% cases. There was no correlation between miRNA expression and clinical data and the course of illness.

Our study indicated that miR-21 and miR-205 can be used to analyze the clarity of surgical margins and that concomitant changes in the expression of let-7 and miR-18a in tumor tissues might represent important future markers indicating the biology of HNSCC. These observations will help with developing personalization for HNSCC patients' treatment.