Identification of a Four-miRNA Signature Predicts Prognosis in Papillary Thyroid Cancer
Abstract Background: In newly diagnosed patients with thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), accounts for ninety percent of all cases. Although PTC is known as a relatively adolescent malignant disease, there still is a high possibility of recurrence in PTC patients, who suffered from poor prognosis. Therefore, new biomarkers are necessary to guide more effective stratification of PTC patients and personalization of therapy to avoid overtreatment or inadequate treatment. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that miRNAs have broad application prospects as diagnostic biomarkers in cancer. Methods: The present study aims to explore novel markers consists of miRNA-associated signature for PTC prognostication, utilizing data from the TCGA database. We obtained and analyzed data of 497 PTC patients from the TCGA. The patients were randomly assigned to a training cohort or testing cohort. Results: We discovered 237 differentially expressed miRNAs in tumorous thyroid tissues comparing to normal tissues The effect evaluation of excavated differently expressed miRNAs was conducted by our risk score model. We then successfully generated a four-miRNA potential prognostic signature, which reliably distinguishes patients from high risk and low risk with a significant difference in overall survival (P <0.01) and was effective in predicting five-year disease survival. Conclusions: Our results indicated a four miRNAs signature that has a robust predicting effect on the prognosis of PTC. Therefore, we would recommend more radical treatment and closer follow-up of high-risk individuals.