To investigate the expression levels of microRNA-214 (miR-214) and miR-181cin gastric cancer tissues and their influences on prognosis.

Sixty-eight patients with gastric cancer admitted to North Sichuan Medical College from January 2014 to January 2015 were selected as the study objects, all of them received surgical treatment, and were followed up for 1-60 months. The expression levels of miR-214 and miR-181c in cancer and adjacent tissues were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival curve. Cox multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze the independent risk factors influencing the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.

The expression levels of miR-214 and miR-181c in gastric cancer were significantly lower than those in adjacent tissues, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). According to the average expression levels of miR-214 and miR-181c in gastric cancer patients, they were divided into high expression groups and low expression groups, the expression levels of miR-214 and miR-181c were not related to age, gender, lymph node metastasis or not, but related to TNM stage and tumor differentiation (P<0.05). The overall survival rate of 68 patients with gastric cancer was 44.12%, and the 5-year accumulate survival rate of miR-214 low expression group and high expression group were 35.71% and 57.69%, respectively, the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.035); the 5-year accumulate survival rate of miR-181c low expression group and high expression group were 35.55% and 60.87%, respectively, with significant difference between the two groups (P=0.024). Cox regression analysis showed that high TNM stage (HR=1.569, 95% CI: 1.029-2.391, P=0.036), low expressions of miR-214 (HR=1.643, 95% CI: 1.294-2.087, P<0.001) and miR-181c (HR=1.327, 95% CI: 1.045-1.685, P=0.021) were independent risk factors for the prognosis of gastric cancer.

The expressions of miR-214 and miR-181c in gastric cancer tissues are down-regulated, which are related to the clinicopathological parameters and poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients, and is involved in the occurrence and development of gastric cancer.