miR-17-92 host gene, uderexpressed in gastric cancer and its expression was negatively correlated with the metastasis

This study aimed to evaluate the expression of miR-17-92 host gene (MIR17HG), in gastric cancer and paired normal adjacent tissues for the 1st time. Using quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction, the MIR17HG expression was assessed in 30 paired tumoral and nontumoral gastric tissue samples. Our results showed that this transcript was significantly underexpressed in gastric tumors compared with normal ones. Furthermore, there was an association between the expression levels of MIR17HG and gastric cancer grades and stages. Moreover, the expression level of MIR17HG was conversely associated with the size of tumoral specimens in early stages (stages I and II). We also observed an association between the presence of metastasis and lower expression of MIR17HG. Our results suggest that MIR17HG gene expression is dysregulated in gastric cancer in which it may indicate a tumor suppressive function of this miRNA cluster host gene in gastric cancer.