Relationship between miR-338-3p and Clinicopathological Parameters, Prognosis, and STAT3 mRNA Expression in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the expression of miR-338-3p in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its relationship with STAT3 mRNA expression as well as their relationship with clinical pathological parameters and prognosis of patients. Methods. From September 2016 to September 2018, 71 patients with NPC were selected as the NPC group, and 71 samples of NPC tissues were collected during the operation. A total of 23 patients who underwent biopsy due to chronic nasopharyngitis were selected as the control group and 23 nasopharyngeal mucosal tissues were collected. The expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal tissue of two groups were detected by real-time quantitative PCR, and the relationship between the two was analyzed. To collect clinical data of NPC patients and analyze the relationship between the expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 in NPC tissues and clinical pathological parameters of the patients, we followed up the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma for three years to observe the relationship between miR-338-3p, STAT3, and the prognosis of the patients. Results. The relative expression levels of miR-338-3p in nasopharyngeal tissues of the NPC group and the control group were 0.39 ± 0.05 and 1.01 ± 0.09, respectively ( $P$  < 0.05). The relative expression levels of STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal tissues of the NPC group and the control group were 3.82 ± 0.21 and 1.04 ± 0.11, respectively ( $P$  > 0.05). miR-338-3p was negatively correlated with the relative expression of STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (r = 0.038, $P$  > 0.05). The expression of miR-338-3p was related to the age of the patient, clinical TNM stage, T stage, and distant metastasis (all $P$  < 0.05). STAT3 expression was correlated with clinical TNM stage, T stage, and distant metastasis in our patient ( $P$  < 0.05). The expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues from different gender, histological type, N stage, M stage, and degree of differentiation showed no statistical differences ( $P$  > 0.05). The survival rate of the group with low miR-338-3p expression was significantly lower than that of the group with high miR-338-3p expression ( $P$  > 0.05). The survival rate of patients with the high STAT3 expression group was significantly lower than that of patients with the low STAT3 expression group ( $P$  > 0.05). Conclusion. There is a negative correlation between the low expression of miR-338-3p and the high expression of STAT3 in NPC, which are all related to the TNM stage, T stage, and prognosis of the patient.