Although certain
biomarkers that are directly associated with the overall survival (OS) of patients with pancreatic
adenocarcinoma (PAAD) have been identified, the efficacy of a single factor is limited to predicting the prognosis. The aim of the present study was to identify a combination micro (mi)
RNA signature that enhanced the prognostic prediction for PAAD. Following analysis of the data available from The
Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), 175 PAAD samples were selected for the present study, and the associations between 494
miRNAs and OS were investigated. The prognostic value of all
miRNAs was analyzed by multivariate Cox regression, and the
miRNAs were ranked according to the hazard ratio (HR) and P‑values. The top 5
miRNAs (miR‑1301, miR‑125a, miR‑376c, miR‑328 and miR‑376b) were significantly associated with OS (HR=0.139; 95% confidence interval, 0.043‑0.443; P<0.001), thus demonstrating that this panel was able to serve as an independent prognostic factor for PAAD. In addition, the present study also predicted the target genes of the top 10
miRNAs with the highest prognostic values using 12 different prediction software, and enrichment signaling pathway analyses elucidated that several pathways may be markedly associated with these
miRNAs, including 'Pathways in
cancer', '
Chronic myeloid leukemia', '
Glioma' and '
MicroRNAs in
cancer'. Lastly,
ubiquitin C,
epidermal growth factor receptor,
estrogen receptor 1, mitogen‑activated
protein kinase 1, mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 4 and
androgen receptor may be the hub genes revealed by STRING analysis. The present study identified several
miRNAs, particularly a five‑miRNA‑pool, that may be reliable, independent factors for predicting survival in patients with PAAD. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms require further investigation in the future.