Abstract 700P
Background
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been evaluated as a potential biomarker in many cancers, including HNSCC. Therefore, we aimed to identify a prognostic miRNA signature score from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and further validated it in our HNSCC cohort.
Methods
The clinical data and the miRNA expression profile of HNSCC patients in the TCGA database were retrieved. The significantly differentially expressed miRNAs (SDEMs) were identified. Correlation between candidate miRNAs with survival of HNSCC patients was analyzed. A prognostic miRNA signature model was generated and classified as high and low risk scores. Subsequently, this candidate miRNA signature score was further validated in the HNSCC patient cohort of Ramathibodi Hospital (RA), Bangkok, Thailand. The expressions of miRNAs were extracted from archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues and examined using droplet-digital PCR.
Results
From the TCGA database, we compared the expressions of 277 miRNAs between 519 HNSCC tissues and 44 adjacent normal tissues. Of these, we identified 211 SDEMs. The six miRNAs’ expressions, including hsa-miR-10b, hsa-miR-148b, hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-127, hsa-miR-370, and hsa-miR-500a, were independently associated with overall survival (OS). We, therefore, established the miRNA signature score from those six miRNAs. We identified the score cut-off point and categorized patients into low and high score group. The median OS of TCGA patients in low score group was significantly shorter than high score group (36 vs. 68 months; p-value <0.001). This candidate miRNA signature score was further validated in the RA-HNSCC cohort. Expressions of 6 miRNAs were examined in a total of 87 RA-HNSCCpatients, then applied to the model for calculating miRNA signature score. The cut-off score was used to assign RA-HNSCC patients into high and low score group. The median OS of low score group was significantly shorter when compared with the high score group (p-value = 0.03). The miRNA signature score was an independent prognostic factor for OS in the validation cohort.
Conclusions
We identified the prognostic miRNA signature score for HNSCC patients from the TCGA cohort and was further validated in our independent cohort. However, a larger study is warranted to confirm this result.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.