Combined low miR-34s are associated with unfavorable prognosis in children with hepatoblastoma: A Chinese population-based study

PurposeThe aim of this study is to identify the association between miR-34's family and the prognosis of HB in a large Asian cohort and to explore the interaction of miR-34 with other independent risk factors in the process of affecting prognosis of HB.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 78 children with HB (36 female, 42 male) managed in our institutions between 2007 and 2014. The expression of miR-34 was detected by real-time PCR. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsFor the entire cohort of 76 patients, The normalized real-time PCR results showed that all three miRNAs were deregulated in tumor tissues as compared with corresponding noncancerous tissue samples. Descriptive survival statistics and Kaplan–Meier curves suggested that AFP levels, metastases, vascular invasion, PRETEXT stage and miR-34 had prognostic significance in this relatively selected cohort. After that we made miR-34 into different combinations. The results demonstrated that combined low miR-34a and miR-34b (HR:2.212, P = 0.016), combined low miR-34a and miR-34c (HR:1.984, P = 0.025) and combined low miR-34a, miR-34b and miR-34c (HR:3.569, P = 0.001) were independent prognostic factors of HB. We further conduct stratified analysis of the impact of other identified risk factors on the combined low of three miR-34.ConclusionsIn this study, we found that miR-34s were deregulated in tumor tissues compared with corresponding noncancerous tissue samples. We also confirmed that combined low miR-34 is an independent prognostic factor related with HB.