Prognostic significance of microRNAs in survival of patients with supratentorial gliomas
<p><strong>Aim.</strong> To identify novel microRNA markers as survival predictors in patients with supratentorial gliomas.<br /><strong>Methods.</strong> This study involved the analysis of tumour and normal brain tissue biopsy samples obtained from patients undergoing combination treatment for supratentorial gliomas of different World Health Organization (WHO) grades. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression profiles of ten microRNAs, following comparison with clinical treatment results: tumour morphology, WHO grade, patient age, Karnofsky scale, treatment type, postsurgical survival rate and histological diagnosis. The mean age of surgically treated patients [62 (57.9%) males and 45 (42.1%) females] was 48.8 ± 14 years. There were 17 (16%), 30 (28%) and 60 (56%) patients with grade II, III and IV (glioblastoma) gliomas, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica version 10.0 and GraphPad Prism version 5.<br /><strong>Results.</strong> Four microRNAs (miRNA-31, miRNA-21, miRNA-223 and miRNA-221) were strongly correlated with worse survival, when over-expressed, indicating their potential utility as survival predictors in glioma patients. Overexpression of these microRNAs in glioma tissue, lack of adjuvant therapy such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy and age > 48 years were identified as factors for worse prognosis.</p><p><strong>Funding:</strong> This work was supported by the program of fundamental scientific research on the topic 0310-2019-0003.</p><p><strong>Conflict of interest:</strong> The authors declare no conflict of interest.</p>