Prognostic significance of micrornas in survival of patients with supratentorial gliomas

Aim. To identify novel microRNA markers as survival predictors in patients with supratentorial gliomas. Methods. This study involved the analysis of tumour and normal brain tissue biopsy samples obtained from patients undergoing combination treatment for supratentorial gliomas of different World Health Organization (WHO) grades. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression profiles of ten microRNAs, following comparison with clinical treatment results: tumour morphology, WHO grade, patient age, Karnofsky scale, treatment type, postsurgical survival rate and histological diagnosis. The mean age of surgically treated patients [62 (57.9%) males and 45 (42.1%) females] was 48.8 ± 14 years. There were 17 (16%), 30 (28%) and 60 (56%) patients with grade II, III and IV (glioblastoma) gliomas, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica version 10.0 and GraphPad Prism version 5. Results. Four microRNAs (miRNA-31, miRNA-21, miRNA-223 and miRNA-221) were strongly correlated with worse survival, when over-expressed, indicating their potential utility as survival predictors in glioma patients. Overexpression of these microRNAs in glioma tissue, lack of adjuvant therapy such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy and age > 48 years were identified as factors for worse prognosis.