Prognostic potential of microRNA-138 and its target mRNA PDK1 in sera for patients with non-small cell lung cancer

microRNA (miR)-138 has been recognized as a potential tumor suppressor via regulating 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1) expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. The aim of this study was to investigate miR-138 and PDK1 mRNA expression in serum of NSCLC and their associations with patients' prognosis. miR-138 and PDK1 mRNA expressions in 100 NSCLCs and 100 healthy control sera were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. miR-138 expression level was significantly lower in NSCLC serum samples than in healthy control serum samples (P < 0.001), while PDK1 mRNA expression level was significantly increased in NSCLC serum samples compared to healthy control serum samples (P < 0.001). In addition, miR-138 downregulation and PDK1 upregulation were both significantly associated with advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (both P = 0.002) and positive lymph node metastasis (both P = 0.01) of NSCLC patients. Moreover, the overall survival of NSCLC patients with low miR-138 expression or high PDK1 mRNA expression was obviously shorter than those with high miR-138 expression or low PDK1 mRNA expression (both P < 0.001). Notably, NSCLC patients with combined miR-138 downregulation and PDK1 upregulation (miR-138-low/PDK1-high) had shortest overall survival (P < 0.001). Furthermore, multivariate analysis showed that miR-138 expression (P = 0.01), PDK1 expression (P = 0.01), and combined expression of miR-138 and PDK1 (miR-138/PDK1, P = 0.001) were all independent prognostic factors for overall survival in NSCLC patients. Deregulation of miR-138/PDK1 cascade may be implicated in carcinogenesis and cancer progression of human NSCLC. More importantly, miR-138 and PDK1 may synergistically predict patients' prognosis and their combination may represent a promising prognostic biomarker of human NSCLC.