Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-214 (miR-214) in advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and its effects on the invasion,migration and colone formation of FaDu cells.Methods miR-214 expression in 30 cases of advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and normal hypopharyngeal mucosa tissues was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).miR-214 was upregulated through transfecting the overexpression vector hsa-mir-214 into FaDu cells.The influences of miR-214 upregulation on the invasion,migration,clone formation and Twist expression were measured by Transwell invasion,Transwell migration,plate clone formation and Western blot assays,respectively.Results The expression of miR-214 in advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues (0.31 1 ±0.206) was significantly less than normal hypopharyngeal mucosa tissues(1.620 ± 1.394;t =5.09,P ＜ 0.05).The expression of miR-214 was notably upregulated after tranfected with hsa-mir-214 compared with the negative control group (t =6.347,P ＜ 0.05).The migration and invasion ability of FaDu cells transfeced with hsa-mir-214 was decreased by comparison with negative control cells (t =1 1.6,P ＜0.01; t =6.499,P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference of the average clony number and the cloning efficiency between the experimental and negative control groups (t =0.592,P ＞ 0.05).Results of Western blot assay showed that,Twist expression in the miR-214-overexpressed group was apparently decreased compared with that in the control group (t =6.545,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions miR-214 is expressed at a low level in advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues,and can obviously inhibit the invasion and migration abilities of FaDu cells,possibly because of its inhibiting effect on Twist expression.Additionally,miR-214 plays no significant role in the proliferation of FaDu cells.