Expression and clinical significance of miR-197 in the serum of prostate cancer patients

Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-197 (miR-197) in the serum of prostate cancer patients and its clinical significance. Methods Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to detect the relative expression of serum miR-197 in 48 prostate cancer patients, 48 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and 48 healthy subjects. The relationship between the relative expression of serum miR-197 and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the sensitivity and specificity of serum miR-197 in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Results The level of serum miR-197 in prostate cancer patients was higher than that in benign prostatic hyperplasia and healthy subjects (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the level of serum miR-197 between benign prostatic hyperplasia patients and healthy subjects (P>0.05). The level of serum miR-197 was significantly correlated with clinical pathological stage, Gleason score and bone metastasis of prostate cancer (P<0.05), rather than age and prostate specific antigen (P>0.05). ROC curve showed that miR-197 could differentiate prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia and healthy subjects, with the area under the curve was 0.828 (95% CI: 0.794-0.919) and 0.809 (95% CI: 0.746-0.918), respectively. Conclusions The high expression of miR-197 in the serum of prostate cancer patients is related to the progression of prostate cancer, and can be used as a marker to determine the prognosis of prostate cancer.