miR-661 expression is upregulated in PDAC tissues and is associated with a poor survival rate. (A) miR-661 expression level in 59 paired PDAC tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues was examined with RT-qPCR. U6 was used as an internal control. (B) miR-661 expression level in three human PDAC ASPC-1, PANC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cell lines and one human pancreatic duct epithelial HPDE6 cell line was examined via RT-qPCR. U6 was used as an internal control. (C) Kapan-Meier survival rate analysis revealed that the patients with higher miR-661 expression had a significantly worse disease-free survival (log-rank, 9.388; P<0.05) and (D) overall survival (log-rank, 9.629; P<0.05) rate than those with lower miR-661 expression. *P<0.05. miRNA/miR, microRNA; PDAC, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; RT-qPCR, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction.