These subgroup analyses also highlighted that elevated expression of miR-21 and miR-155 and low levels of expression of miR-148a, miR-148b, and miR-<i>let</i>-7 were associated with poor prognosis in NSCLC.
In the present study, quantitative proteomic technology was used to study the protein expression profile of SPC-A-1 cells subsequent to the downregulation of miR-148a expression, in order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of the suppression of NSCLC metastasis by miR-148a.
A significant association was observed between low miR-148a level and poor OS in patients (HR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.14 - 2.20, <i>P</i> = 0.00), especially with digestive tract cancer (DTC) (HR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.63, <i>P</i> = 0.03), and another significant association was observed between low miR-148b level and poor OS in patients (HR=2.09, 95% CI: 1.70-2.56, <i>P</i> = 0.00), especially with (hepatocellular carcinoma) HCC (HR = 1.97, 95% Cl: 1.52-2.56, <i>P</i> = 0.00) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (HR = 2.29, 95% Cl: 1.64-3.18, <i>P</i> = 0.00).
We found that miR-148a is significantly downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared to adjacent non-cancerous lung tissues, and the downregulated miR-148a was significantly associated with lymph-node metastasis.