Objective To investigate the expression levels of microRNA-152-3p (miR-152-3p) and sex determining region-box transcription factor 5 (SOX5) in gastric cancer (GC) tissues and their clinical significance.

Methods A total of 120 GC patients were selected as study subjects. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of miR-152-3p and SOX5 , and their relationships with the clinicopathological characteristics of GC patients were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to draw survival curves, and the Cox regression model was used to screen the prognostic influencing factors of GC patients.

Results The expression level of miR-152-3p in GC tissues was lower than that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues, while the expression level of SOX5 was higher than that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P < 0.05). The expressions of miR-152-3p and SOX5 in GC tissues were all associated with lymph node metastasis, degree of differentiation, and TNM stage (P < 0.05). The expression level of miR-152-3p was negatively correlated with that of SOX5 (r=-0.512, P < 0.05), and there were targeted binding sites between miR-152-3p and SOX5 . The 5-year specific survival rate of the low miR-152-3p expression group was lower than that of the high miR-152-3p expression group (60.53% versus 84.09%, χ²=7.256, P < 0.05). The 5-year specific survival rate of the high SOX5 expression group was 63.10%, which was lower than 83.33% of the low SOX5 expression group, with a statistically significant difference (χ²=4.840, P < 0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the expression levels of miR-152-3p and SOX5, as well as the TNM stage, were all independent prognostic influencing factors for GC patients (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Low expressions of miR-152-3p and high expression of SOX5 are observed in GC tissues, and their expression levels are closely related to clinicopathological characteristics such as TNM stage and patients′ prognosis.