Table 2.

Clinical significance of miR-21 expression in serum and tissue specimens from colorectacl cancer patients*

Variables	Serum miR-21 expression, mean ± SD (n = 186)	P	Tissue miR-21 expression, mean ± SD (n = 166)	P
Age, y†
≤67	0.0062±0.0047 (n = 88)	.22	3.16±1.46 (n = 80)	.07
>67	0.0059±0.0052 (n = 98)		3.64±1.73 (n = 86)
Sex
Male	0.0059±0.0053 (n = 106)	.30	3.23±1.46 (n = 100)	.36
Female	0.0062±0.0044 (n = 80)		3.52±1.72 (n = 66)
Tumor location
Right side	0.0073±0.0065 (n = 59)	.16	3.38±1.45 (n = 56)	.70
Left side	0.0058±0.0048 (n = 127)		3.33±1.57 (n = 110)
Tumor type
Colon cancer	0.0063±0.0055 (n = 110)	.89	3.50±1.51 (n = 101)	.07
Rectal cancer	0.0062±0.0054 (n = 76)		3.11±1.52 (n = 65)
Tumor size, cm‡
≤5	0.0048±0.0035 (n = 91)	.004	3.13±1.47 (n = 78)	.01
>5	0.0070±0.0056 (n = 95)		3.67±1.71 (n = 88)
Serosal invasion
Negative	0.0051±0.0041 (n = 58)	.08	2.82±1.37 (n = 47)	.004
Positive	0.0064±0.0052 (n = 128)		3.64±1.66 (n = 119)
Lymphatic invasion
Negative	0.0058±0.0041 (n = 46)	.83	3.04±1.52 (n = 39)	.02
Positive	0.0061±0.0051 (n = 140)		3.53±1.64 (n = 127)
Venous invasion
Negative	0.0058±0.0045 (n = 108)	.53	3.36±1.53 (n = 91)	.60
Positive	0.0064±0.0054 (n = 78)		3.47±1.73 (n = 75)
Lymph node metastasis
Negative	0.0055±0.0042 (n = 106)	.12	3.24±1.48 (n = 92)	.11
Positive	0.0068±0.0057 (n = 80)		3.62±1.76 (n = 74)
Distant metastasis
Negative	0.0055±0.0045 (n = 145)	.01	3.21±1.37 (n = 131)	.02
Positive	0.0078±0.0060 (n = 41)		4.18±2.19 (n = 35)

* SD = standard deviation.

† The median age was 67 years.

‡ The median tumor size was 5 cm.