Expert statview

The relationships between 2 groups and the numerical values obtained by RT-qPCR were analysed using Mann-Whitney U-tests. Spearman's rank test was used to evaluate the correlations between the expression of miR-145-5p and miR-145-3p. The relationships among more than 3 variables and numerical values were analysed using the Bonferroni-adjusted Mann-Whitney U-test. Survival analysis was analysed by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test, using Stat Mate software (version 4.01, ATMS Co., Tokyo, Japan). All other analyses were performed using Expert StatView (version 5, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).

Mann–Whitney U tests were applied for comparisons between two groups. For multiple groups, one‐way analysis of variance and Tukey tests for post‐hoc analysis were applied. These analyses were performed with graphpad prism 7 (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA) and jmp pro 14 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). For other analyses, expert statview (version 5, SAS Institute, Inc.) was used.

Comparisons between groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test or one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Differences in survival rates were determined by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test. The Z-scores of target genes mRNA expression data and clinical sample information corresponding to PDAC patients were collected from cBioPortal. R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform (http://r2.amc.nl) was used to create a heatmap. Furthermore, Z-score was evaluated by a combination of each genes sets. High group (mRNA Z-score > 0) and low group (mRNA Z-score ≤ 0) were analyzed by Kaplan–Meier survival curves and log-rank statistics. The analyses were conducted using Expert StatView version 5.0 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA) and GraphPad Prism version 7.04 (GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA).