Prognostic role of microRNA-25 in cancers: evidence from a meta-analysis

miRNAs have been participated in human carcinogenesis as tumor oncogenes or suppressors, and have a prognostic significant for patients with cancers. In recent years, miR-25 was found associated with clinical value of cancerous patients. Meanwhile the miR-25 showed a different expression in related studies. Therefore, we summarize the results from a variety of studies using a meta-analysis, in order to explain the prognostic value of miR-25 in many human cancers.

The articles were retrieved from the on-line databases, PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI. We extracted and estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS), which compared the high and low expression levels of miR-25 in patients with a different of cancers. Pooled HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated.

Eight studies of 868 patients were selected into the final meta-analysis after a strict filtering and qualifying process. Fixed model or random model method was chosen depending on the heterogeneity between the studies. For OS, higher miR-25 expression could significantly predict worse outcome with the pooled HR of 2.434 (95% CI 1.330-3.539, P=0.000). The subgroup analysis showed that high expressed miR-25 could worsen OS in Chinese patients with pooled HR of 1.895 (95% CI 1.096-2.693, P=0.007). The sensitive analysis showed that removing the document one by one, there no obvious change of HR of 0.823 (95% CI 0.385-1.260). No bias existed in the group.

Our study indicates that high expression level of miR-25 corresponds with poor survival in cancerous patients, and the expression of miR-25 could be a promising prognostic biomarker in the future.