Expression patterns of microRNA-329 and its clinical performance in diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer

Figures & data

Table 1 Association of miR-329 with the clinicopathological features of breast cancer patients

Features	Total no (n=134)	miR-329 expression		χ^2	P-values
		Low (n=76)	High (n=58)
Age (years)				0.017	0.897
≤50	50	28	22
>50	84	48	36
Tumor size (cm)				0.005	0.945
≥3.0	55	31	24
>3.0	79	45	34
LN metastasis				5.888	0.015
Negative	58	26	32
Positive	76	50	26
PR expression				0.424	0.515
Negative	65	35	30
Positive	69	41	28
ER expression				0.009	0.925
Negative	63	36	27
Positive	71	40	31
HER-2 expression				0.056	0.813
Positive	57	33	24
Negative	77	43	34
TNM				9.060	0.003
I–II	61	26	35
III–IV	73	50	23

Abbreviations: ER, estrogen receptor; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; LN, lymph node; miR-329, microRNA-329; PR, progesterone receptor.

Figure 1 Expression of miR-329 in serum and tissue specimens.

Notes: (A) miR-329 expression was downregulated in the serum samples of breast cancer patients compared with those of healthy controls (*P=0.0056). (B) The expression of miR-329 was decreased in breast cancer tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues (*P=0.0068). (C) The serum expression of miR-329 was positively correlated with the miR-329 tissue expression (R=0.493, P<0.001).
Abbreviation: miR-329, microRNA-329.

Figure 2 Expression of miR-329 in breast cancer cell-derived exosomes.

Note: No difference in miR-329 expression was found between breast cancer cells and normal breast cells (P>0.05).
Abbreviation: miR-329, microRNA-329.

Figure 3 ROC curve based on the expression of miR-329 for breast cancer patients.

Note: The AUC value was 0.932, indicating the high diagnostic value of miR-329 for patients with breast cancer.
Abbreviations: AUC, area under the curve; miR-329, microRNA-329; ROC, receiver operating characteristic.

Figure 4 Kaplan–Meier survival analysis for breast cancer patients based on the difference in expression of miR-329.

Note: Decreased miR-329 expression correlated with poor overall survival of cancer patients (log-rank P<0.001).
Abbreviation: miR-329, microRNA-329.

Table 2 Cox regression analysis for miR-329 in patients with breast cancer

Characteristics	Univariate analysis			Multivariate analysis
	HR	95% CI	P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
miR-329 (low vs high)	2.987	1.681–5.308	0.000	2.987	1.681–5.308	0.000
Age (year) (≥50 vs <50)	0.849	0.505–1.428	0.538	–	–	–
Tumor size (cm) (>3.0 vs ≤3.0)	1.163	0.713–1.896	0.546	–	–	–
Lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative)	0.957	0.589–1.554	0.858	–	–	–
PR expression (positive vs negative)	1.327	0.818–2.152	0.252	–	–	–
ER expression (positive vs negative)	0.956	0.592–1.544	0.854	–	–	–
HER-2 expression (positive vs negative)	0.804	0.497–1.302	0.376	–	–	–
TNM stage (III vs I–II)	1.319	0.796–2.187	0.283	–	–	–

Note: – indicates no related data.

Abbreviations: ER, estrogen receptor; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; HR, hazard ratio; miR-329, microRNA-329; PR, progesterone receptor.

Figure 5 Expression of miR-329 in breast cancer patients as per data collected from TCGA.

Note: Downregulated miR-329 expression was detected in breast cancer cases compared with the normal controls (***P=0.00065).
Abbreviations: miR-329, microRNA-329; TCGA, The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Figure 6 Clinical significance of miR-329 in breast cancer patients as per data collected from TCGA.

Notes: (A) miR-329 had a relatively high diagnostic performance with an AUC of 0.780. (B) Downregulated miR-329 expression proved to be associated with poor overall survival of breast cancer patients (log-rank P=0.033).
Abbreviations: AUC, area under the curve; miR-329, microRNA-329; TCGA, The Cancer Genome Atlas.