Diagnostic and prognostic relevance of serum miR-195 in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia.

backgroundMicroRNA-195 acts as a tumor suppressor in a variety of cancers. However, its clinical significance in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains largely undefined.

objectiveTo investigate the diagnostic and prognostic relevance of miR-195 in this malignancy.

methodsExpression levels of miR-195 in peripheral blood and bone marrow samples of patients with pediatric AML and normal controls were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. Then, receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression analysis were performed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic relevance of serum miR-195 in pediatric AML.

resultsCompared to normal controls, the expression levels of miR-195 in both bone marrow and patients' sera were significantly decreased (both P< 0.001). In addition, serum miR-195 had an optimal diagnostic cut-off point (2.09) for pediatric AML with sensitivity of 68.87% and specificity of 96.23%. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) based on serum miR-195 was 0.910. Moreover, patients with low serum miR-195 level more often had French-American-British classification subtype M7 (P= 0.02), unfavorable karyotypes (P= 0.01), and shorter relapse-free and overall survivals (both P= 0.001) than those with high serum miR-195 level. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis identified serum miR-195 level as an independent prognostic factor for both relapse-free and overall survivals.

conclusionThe findings of this study suggest that the aberrant expression of miR-195 may play crucial roles in the development and progression of pediatric AML patients. Serum miR-195 may serve as a promising marker for monitoring the occurrence of this disease and predicting the clinical outcome of patients.