Gan Z, et al. - For lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), researchers sought to develop and validate a microRNA (miR)-based signature as a prognostic tool. Using mature miR expression profiles downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, they identified 316 miRs that were differentially expressed between LUSC and matched healthy lung tissues in the training set. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis yielded seven miRs as independent prognostic factors. A signature index ranging from 0 to 7 was applied to each patient. Based on their signature index, patients with LUSC were divided into high-risk, intermediate-risk, and low-risk groups; the three groups were significantly different regarding OS. The validation set confirmed the finding. In comparison with routine clinicopathologic features, this seven-miR signature remained an independent prognostic factor. Findings suggest the promising value of the seven-miR signature as a biomarker for predicting the 5-year survival rate of LUSC.