High expression of miR-338 is associated with poor prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia undergoing chemotherapy

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with unfavorable outcomes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators and prognostic factors involved in AML. To determine the clinical role of miR-338 in AML, a total of 164 adults with de novo AML were collected. These patients were classified into a chemotherapy group and an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) group according to the clinical treatment, and then each group was divided into two subgroups based on the median miR-338 expression values. We found that upregulated miR-338 positively correlates with higher frequencies of complex karyotype, RUNX1 mutation, and poor risk status. In the chemotherapy group, high expression of miR-338 was independently associated with shorter EFS and OS. However, no significant differences were observed between the two subgroups within the allo-HSCT group. We also divided all patients into two groups according to the median miR-338 expression values of the whole cohort. In the miR-338 high expression group, patients receiving allo-HSCT had longer OS and EFS than those receiving chemotherapy only. In contrast, patients receiving different therapies had similar OS and EFS in the miR-338 low expression group. Our study suggests that high expression of miR-338 is an adverse prognostic biomarker in patients with AML undergoing chemotherapy and may guide treatment decisions for AML. Furthermore, allo-HSCT could significantly overcome the negative effect of high miR-338 expression, but it seemed to be unbeneficial and unnecessary for low miR-338 expressions.