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Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-363-3p （miR-363-3p） and sex-determining region Y-box protein 4（SOX4） mRNA in the non-small-cell lung cancer （NSCLC） tissues and their effects on the epithelmesenchymal transformation （EMT). Methods Cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of 84 patients with NSCLC who underwent surgical resection were collected. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to detect miR-363-3p and SOX4 mRNA in the cancer tissues and adjacent tissues, and immunohistochemistry was used to detect the E-cadherin and Vimentin expression in the cancer tissues and adjacent tissues. The mRNA expression levels of miR-363-3p and SOX4 in the cancer tissues of patients with different pathological characteristics were compared. Spearman's rank correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between miR-363-3p, SOX4 mRNA expression and E-cadherin and Vimentin in the cancer tissues. The interaction of miR-363-3p and SOX4 in EMT process was analyzed using relative excess risk due to interaction （RERI), attributable proportion due to interaction （AP） and interaction index （SI）. Results The expression of miR-363-3p in the cancer tissues was lower than that in the adjacent tissues, and the expression of SOX4 mRNA was higher than that in the adjacent tissues （both P<0. 05）. The mRNA expression levels of miR-363-3p and SOX4 in the cancer tissues were not related to gender, age, smoking history or tumor diameter （all P>0. 05), but was related to differentiation degree and TNM stage (all P<0. 05). The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in the cancer tissues was lower than that in the adjacent tissues, and the positive expression rate of Vimentin was higher than that in the adjacent tissues （both P<0. 05）. The miR-363-3p was positively correlated with the expression of E-cadherin (r=0. 491，P<0. 05), and was negatively correlated with the expression of Vimentin （r=–0. 506，P<0. 05). SOX4 mRNA was negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression (r=–0. 527, P<0. 05), and was positively correlated with Vimentin expression （r=0. 463，P<0. 05). The miR-363-3p and SOX4 in the cancer tissues had negative interactions with EMT process （RERI=29. 639， AP=70. 91, SI=3. 656). Conclusion The abnormal expression of miR-363-3p and SOX4 mRNA in NSCLC tissues is related to EMT, and the two have negative interaction with EMT process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]