Association of miR-34a expression with quality of life of glioblastoma patients: a prospective study

MiR-34a acts as tumor-suppressor by targeting many oncogenes related to proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion of gliomas. We studied the relationships between health-related quality of life (HRQOL), depression, and miR-34a expression status in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM). A comprehensive HRQOL assessment was completed by 38 patients with glioblastoma prior to surgical resection and included the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire for cancer patients (QLQ-C30) and the Brain Cancer-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-BN20), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Karnofsky performance index (KPS), and The Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). The miR-34a expression in glioblastoma tissue was measured using quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Our findings show that lower miR-34a expression is significantly associated with higher tumor volume, worse physical functioning, lower KPS, and greater depressive symptom severity of GBM patients. Moreover, analysis reveals that miR-34a effects might be gender specific, as stronger relationships between miR-34a and patient functioning measures were observed in males when compared to females. Despite the fact that, due to small sample size, our results should be considered as preliminary, our study suggests that miR-34a is associated with tumor burden and can be important for health-related quality of life, functional status, and mood symptoms of glioblastoma patients.