Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
miRNA deregulation evinces a remarkable role in
ovarian cancer tumorigenesis. miRNA-199a (miR-199a) is known to be involved in
cancer development and progression. Although miR-199a has been studied in various cell types, its correlation with clinicopathological features in EOC has not been documented. In this study, we identified the clinicopathological hallmarks which might be perturbed due to the downregulation of serum miR-199a in EOC. Seventy serum samples from histopathologically confirmed EOC patients and 70 controls were collected. Total
RNA from serum was isolated by
Trizol method, polyadenylated and reverse transcribed into
cDNA. Expression level of miR-199a was detected by using
miRNA qRT-PCR. Relative expression was determined with matched controls using
U6 snRNA as reference. Level of miR-199a expression was compared with distinct clinicopathological features. Expression of miR-199a was found to be significantly downregulated in comparison with matched normal controls. The expression level of miR-199a was found to be significantly associated with
tumor stage,
lymph node metastasis, and distal
metastasis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for diagnostic potential yielded significant area under the curve (AUC) with a considerable sensitivity and specificity. ROC curves for prognosis yielded significant AUCs for histological grade, distal
metastasis, lymph node status, and survival. Our findings suggest that miR-199a downregulation might be a potential
indicator for
disease progression promoting the aggressive
tumor progression and be identified as a diagnostic marker to predict the prognosis and survival in EOC patients.