MiRNAs Predict the Prognosis of Patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

miRNAs are stable and can be extracted from tissues, blood and other body fluid without degradation. miRNAs are abnormally expressed in the presence of a pathological status, including cancer. Therefore, miRNAs are ideal biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) suffer the worst prognosis, although great efforts have been made. Many studies have investigated the role of miRNAs in predicting the outcomes of TNBC patients for better adjustment of treatment. However, results were inconsistent. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to summarize the published studies for conclusive results.

Eligible studies from different database were retrieved from the online databases, and we used STSTA 12.0 to analysis the prognostic role of miRNAs in triple negative breast cancer.

Overall high miRNA expression indicated a worse survival with HR value of 1.78 (95% CI: 0.97-3.25). However, subtotal HRs of oncogenic miRNAs and tumor suppressive miRNAs were 2.73 (95% CI: 2.08-3.57; P<0.001) and 0.44 (95% CI: 0.21-0.90; P = 0.024), respectively, and no heterogeneity was observed within the subgroups.

The miRNAs showed a slightly stronger prognostic value for disease-free survival, relapse-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival compared to the overall survival of TNBC patients. Circulating miRNAs could serve as potential biomarkers for the prognosis of TNBC patients and need further investigation.