Abstract:Objective To explore the expressions of microRNA-196b (miR-196b) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and their relationship with prognosis.Methods Seventy-eight NSCLC patients undergoing surgical treatment in the Wuxi Second People's Hospital from April 2020 to April 2022 were selected. The medical records of all patients were collected, and the expressions of miR-196b and IGFBP-3 in cancer and adjacent tissues were determined via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. All patients were followed up for 12 months and divided into progressive and stable groups based on the prognosis. Factors affecting the prognosis of NSCLC were screened, and efficacy of expressions of miR-196b and IGFBP-3 in the tissues in predicting the prognosis of NSCLC patients was evaluated. The differences in survival curves were also analyzed among patients with different expressions of miR-196b and IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues.Results The proportion of patients with TNM stage Ⅲ NSCLC and the preoperative lymph node metastasis rate in the progressive group were higher than those in the stable group (P <0.05). The relative expression of miR-196b in cancer tissues of patients in the progressive group was higher than that of patients in the stable group (P < 0.05), and the positive expression rate of IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues of patients in the progressive group was lower than that of patients in the stable group (P < 0.05). The relative expression of miR-196b in cancer tissues was higher than that in adjacent tissues (P < 0.05), and the positive expression rate of IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues was lower than that in adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). Multivariable stepwise Logistic regression analysis revealed that advanced TNM stage [O^R = 3.684 (95% CI: 1.259, 10.778) ], preoperative lymph node metastasis [O^R = 3.557 (95% CI: 1.216, 10.408) ], and high expression of miR-196b in cancer tissues [O^R = 3.979 (95% CI: 1.359, 11.641) ] were risk factors for the poor prognosis of NSCLC (P < 0.05), and that positive expression of IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues [O^R = 0.220 (95% CI: 0.075, 0.642) ] was a protective factor for the poor prognosis of NSCLC (P < 0.05). The sensitivities of the expressions of miR-196b and IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues alone and their combined detection in predicting the prognosis of NSCLC were 66.25% (95% CI: 0.512, 0.797), 60.00% (95% CI: 0.496, 0.781), and 87.50% (95% CI: 0.725, 0.963), with specificities being 69.74% (95% CI: 0.534, 0.825), 76.32% (95% CI: 0.603, 0.892), and 72.37% (95% CI: 0.576, 0.861), and the areas under the curves being 0.703, 0.680, and 0.805, respectively. The survival of patients with low expression of miR-196b was better than that of those with high expression of miR-196b (P < 0.05), and the survival of patients with positive expression of IGFBP-3 was better than that of those with negative expression of IGFBP-3 (P < 0.05).Conclusions The expressions of miR-196b and IGFBP-3 in cancer tissues of NSCLC patients are correlated with their prognosis, and the combined detection of the two indicators exhibits great predictive efficacy for the prognosis of NSCLC patients.