Figure 2.

qRT-PCR results of miR-34a relative expression and the relationship between miR-34a expression and clinical characteristics in enrolled patients. Analysis of miR-34a relative expression by qRT-PCR. The results are shown as 2^−ΔΔCt and normalized to U6. There is no difference in the relative expression of miR-34a between patients of different ages and genders, with different lesion numbers and locations of lesions (data not shown). (A) Patients with higher tumor stage harbored lower miR-34a expression (P < 0.001), while (B) patients with malignant thyroid lesions expressed higher miR-34a than those with goiter (P < 0.0001). We also analyzed the miR-34a expression among different malignant pathology types and found that there is no significant difference among FTC, MTC and ATC. (C) However, tendency shows that ATC harbored lower miR-34a compared to other groups. (D) miR-34a expression was significantly higher in patients with low SUVmax (SUVmax ≤ 3.63) than in those with higher SUVmax (SUVmax >3.63, P < 0.0001). ^***P < 0.001.

Abbreviations: FDG, fluorodeoxyglucose; FTC, follicular thyroid carcinoma; MTC, medullary thyroid carcinoma; ATC, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma; SUVmax, maximum standardized uptake value; PTC, papillary thyroid carcinoma.