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Do circulating long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) (LincRNA-p21, GAS 5, HOTAIR) predict the treatment response in patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy?

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to be aberrantly expressed in head and neck cancer (HNC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate plasma levels of three lncRNA molecules (lincRNA-p21, GAS5, and HOTAIR) in the treatment response in HNC patients treated with radical chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Forty-one patients with HNC were enrolled in the study. Most of the patients had nasopharyngeal carcinoma (n = 27, 65.9 %) and locally advanced disease. Blood was drawn at baseline and treatment evaluation 4.5 months after therapy. lncRNAs in plasma were measured by semiquantitative PCR. Treatment response was evaluated according to clinical examination, RECIST and PERCIST criteria based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET/CT) findings. Complete response (CR) rates were 73.2, 36.6, and 50 % for clinical investigation, PET/CT-, or MRI-based response evaluation, respectively. Predictive value of lncRNAs was investigated in patients with CR vs. those with partial response (PR)/progressive disease (PD). We found that post-treatment GAS5 levels in patients with PR/PD were significantly higher compared with patients with CR based on clinical investigation (p = 0.01). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that at a cutoff value of 0.3 of GAS5, sensitivity and specificity for clinical tumor response were 82 and 77 %, respectively. Interestingly, pretreatment GAS5 levels were significantly increased in patients with PR/PD compared to those with CR upon MRI-based response evaluation (p = 0.042). In contrast to GAS5, pretreatment or post-treatment lincRNA-p21 and HOTAIR levels were not informative for treatment response. Our results suggest that circulating GAS5 could be a biomarker in predicting treatment response in HNC patients.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Atilla Bozdogan for performing the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Istanbul University, Capa, 34390, Istanbul, Turkey

    Merdan Fayda, Makbule Tambas, Murat Guveli, Rasim Meral & Musa Altun

  2. Department of Basic Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mustafa Isin, Husniye Isin, Emre Ozgur & Ugur Gezer

  3. Oncological Radiology Unit, Institute of Oncology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Dilek Sahin

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gozde Ozkan & Yasemin Sanli

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  1. Merdan Fayda
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Correspondence to Merdan Fayda.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee 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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The study was funded by Istanbul University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (no: 28278).

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Fayda, M., Isin, M., Tambas, M. et al. Do circulating long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) (LincRNA-p21, GAS 5, HOTAIR) predict the treatment response in patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy?. Tumor Biol. 37, 3969–3978 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-4189-1

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