Plasma miR-34a expression was negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.002), also tissue miR-34a expression was negatively associated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.018).
Several upregulated miR-34 targets displayed elevated expression in primary human colorectal cancers that was associated with lymph-node metastases (<i>INHBB, AXL, FGFR1,</i> and <i>PDFGRB</i>) and upregulation of <i>INHBB</i> and <i>AXL</i> in primary colorectal cancer was associated with poor patient survival.
The results indicated that miR‑34a was downregulated in the gastric cancer tissues, compared with the normal gastric tissues (P<0.01). miR‑34a was negatively correlated with the depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer (P<0.01).
miR-34a expression in tumor tissues from TSCC patients with positive lymph node metastases was significantly lower than that with negative lymph node metastases.
The hypermethylation of miR-34a CpG_8.9 was associated with the advanced UICC stage III/IV of the esophageal cancers, and the hypermethylation of CpG_8.9 and CpG_5 of miR-34a was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis.
Expression analysis verified that miR-34a/c expression is significantly decreased in metastatic breast cancer cells and human primary breast tumors with lymph node metastases.