Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of serum miR-134 and miR-149 in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods From April 2020 to October 2022，132 patients with esophageal cancer（esophageal cancer group），125 patients with benign esophageal diseases（benign control group） and 130 healthy subjects（healthy control group） were enrolled from the Third People's Hospital of Hefei. The general data of all the subjects were collected，and the relative expression levels of miR-134 and miR-149 and the levels of carcinoembryonic antigen（CEA），carbohydrate antigen（CA） 125 and CA72-4 in serum were determined. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between serum miR-134，miR-149 and CEA，CA125，CA72-4. The efficacy of serum miR-134 and miR-149 single and combined determination in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic（ROC） curve. Results The relative expression level of miR-134 and the levels of CEA，CA125 and CA72-4 in serum in esophageal cancer group were higher than those in benign control group and healthy control group（P<0.05），and those in benign control group were higher than those in healthy control group（P<0.05）. The relative expression of miR-149 in esophageal cancer group was lower than those in benign control group and healthy control group（P<0.05），and that in benign control group was lower than that in healthy control group（P<0.05）. The positive rates of CEA，CA125 and CA72-4 in esophageal cancer group were higher than those in benign control group（P<0.05）. There was statistical significance in the relative expression levels of serum miR-134 and miR-149 among esophageal cancer patients with different tumor diameters，differentiation degrees and lymphatic metastasis（P<0.05）. Serum miR-134 was positively correlated with CEA，CA125 and CA72-4 in patients with esophageal cancer（r values were 0.425，0.419 and 0.457，P<0.001）. Serum miR-149 was negatively correlated with CEA，CA125 and CA72-4（r values were -0.529，-0.534 and -0.458，P<0.001）. The areas under curves（AUC） of serum miR-134 and miR-149 in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer were 0.768 and 0.773，respectively. The AUC of miR-134+miR-149，CEA+CA125+CA72-4，miR-134+miR-149+CEA+CA125+CA72-4 were 0.910，0.901，0.916，respectively. Conclusions Serum miR-134 and miR-149 are abnormally expressed in patients with esophageal cancer，which are related to the disease，and they may be used as indicators for auxiliary diagnosis and disease monitoring of esophageal cancer.

Key words: MiR-134, MiR-149, Esophageal cancer, Clinicopathological characteristic