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Identification of long noncoding RNAs as potential novel diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers in colorectal cancer

  • Original Article – Cancer Research
  • Published:
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is prevalent worldwide, and improvements in timely and effective diagnosis are imperatively needed. We aimed to identify potential long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) biomarkers for CRC diagnosis along with prognosis prediction.

Methods

LncRNA expression profiles were studied by microarray in paired tumor and normal tissues from six patients with CRC. The expression levels of candidate lncRNAs were analyzed in 80 pairs of tissues and two independent cohorts of serum samples. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed to evaluate the performance of the lncRNAs identified. The correlation between lncRNAs and disease-specific survival rate of CRC patients was assessed to explore prognostic potential.

Results

Four lncRNAs (BANCR, NR_026817, NR_029373, and NR_034119) were identified to be significantly dysregulated in both tissue and serum samples with consistent pattern, and a panel was established based on this result. The performance of the 4-lncRNA panel was measured with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.881. The corresponding AUCs of the panel for patients with TNM stageI, II and III were 0.774, 0.844 and 0.949, respectively, significantly higher than that of CEA. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with low levels of NR_029373 and NR_034119 had significantly lower disease-specific survival rate (p = 0.013 and 0.044, respectively). Multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that NR_029373 and NR_034119 were both independently associated with disease-specific survival rate (p = 0.013 and 0.038, respectively).

Conclusions

Our study established a distinctive 4-lncRNA panel with considerable diagnostic value and identified NR_029373 and NR_034119 as potential biomarkers for CRC prognosis prediction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81271916, 81300297, 81472025, 81501819 and 81501822), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong (No. ZR2013HM104 and ZR2014HP001), Shandong Technological Development Project (No. 2013GSF11859, 2014GSF118016 and 2015GSF118052), Science Foundation of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, and the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (No.2014QLKY03), Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong Province.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, 107 Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong Province, China

      Rui Wang, Lutao Du, Xiumei Jiang, Weili Duan, Suzhen Yan, Yujiao Xie, Lili Wang, Yongmei Yang & Chuanxin Wang

    2. Department of Gastroenterology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, 107 Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong Province, China

      Xiaoyun Yang

    3. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Jinxiang County People’s Hospital, Jining, 272000, Shandong Province, China

      Yuntao Zhu

    4. Department of Medical Affairs Management, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, 107 Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong Province, China

      Qingliang Wang

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    1. Rui Wang
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    Correspondence to Chuanxin Wang.

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    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Qilu Hospital, Shandong University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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    Rui Wang and Lutao Du contributed equally to this article.

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    Wang, R., Du, L., Yang, X. et al. Identification of long noncoding RNAs as potential novel diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers in colorectal cancer. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 142, 2291–2301 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-016-2238-9

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