Hypoxia-regulated microRNA-210 overexpression is associated with tumor development and progression in upper tract urothelial carcinoma

Background: Hypoxia has been shown to facilitate tumor progression. Hypoxia-regulated microRNA-210 (miR-210) may play an important role in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. In this study, we evaluated the clinical significance of miR-210 expression in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Methods: Eighty-three UTUC patients participated in this study. All of them provided cancer tissue samples and 50 of them provided non-cancerous urothelium samples. Clinicopathologic data were collected by reviewing medical records. The expression of miR-210 and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The relationship between clinicopathologic variables and the expression of miR-210 and HIF-1α was analyzed statistically. Results: MiR-210 is overexpressed in UTUC compared to non-cancerous urothelium (p < 0.001); it is also upregulated in high-stage and high-grade tumors (p = 0.020 and 0.049, respectively). HIF-1α is overexpressed in UTUC and correlates positively with miR-210 expression (r = 0.442, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Both miR-210 and HIF-1α are involved in promoting UTUC carcinogenesis. MiR-210 is also correlated with tumor progression. Further studies are needed to clarify the underlying mechanism.