miRNA expression dataset

The miRNA sequence data and clinical characteristics were downloaded from the publicly available TCGA database (https://cancergenome.nih.gov/). Consequently, a total of 465 samples were enrolled in our study, including 457 colon carcinoma tissues and 8 matched normal tissues. Patients without complete information of clinical characteristics or survival time were excluded from the further analysis. Finally, we got 453 colon carcinoma patients and the clinical features recorded included age, sex, TNM stage, tumor (T) stage, extent of spread to the lymph nodes as indicated by the nodal (N) stage, presence of metastasis as indicated by the metastasis (M) stage and residual tumor. The TNM staging system of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is one of the most commonly used tumor staging systems for colon carcinoma. The data processing was in accordance with the publication guidelines provided by TCGA (http://cancerge-nome.nih.gov/publications/publicationguidelines).