Decreased miR-572 expression is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in triple‑negative breast cancer patients

Prior research suggests miR‑572 may suppress breast cancer (BC), but its precise role and mechanism in disease progression, particularly in triple‑negative breast cancer (TNBC), remain unclear. Tumor and matched adjacent normal tissues were collected from 100 patients with TNBC. TNBC cell lines were analyzed by RT‑qPCR for their miR‑572 expression. Kaplan‑Meier, multivariate Cox regression, and ROC analyses were used to assess the prognostic role of miR‑572. Separately, the effects of miR‑572 on TNBC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were analyzed using CCK‑8 and Transwell assays. Potential target genes of miR-572 were predicted using bioinformatics, followed by GO and KEGG enrichment analyses. The direct regulatory relationship between miR-572 and the target gene CDKN1A was validated by dual‑luciferase reporter assay, with CDKN1A protein levels further confirmed by Western blot. TNBC tissues and cells exhibited significantly reduced miR‑572 expression versus normal. Low levels of miR‑572 were linked to TNM stage as well as lymph node metastasis. Kaplan‑Meier curves showed poor prognosis in patients with low miR-572 expression, and ROC analysis for prognosis yielded an AUC of 0.896. TNBC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were all suppressed upon miR‑572 overexpression. CDKN1A was confirmed as a direct target gene of miR-572. CDKN1A upregulation partially counteracted the inhibition of TNBC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion induced by miR‑572 mimics. Downregulation of miR-572 in TNBC patients may be associated with poor prognosis. miR-572 inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion of TNBC cells at least in part by regulating CDKN1A.