Identification of a stool long non‐coding RNAs panel as a potential biomarker for early detection of colorectal cancer

Abstract

Background

The feces of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients contain tumor colonocytes, which constantly shed into the lumen area. Therefore, stool evaluation can be considered as a rapid and low‐risk way to directly determine the colon and rectum status. As long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) alterations are important in cancer cells fate regulation, we aimed to assess the level of a panel of cancer‐related lncRNAs in fecal colonocytes.

Methods

The population study consisted of 150 subjects, including a training set, a validation set, and a group of 30 colon polyps. The expression levels of lncRNAs were evaluated by quantitative real‐time PCR (qRT‐PCR). The NPInetr and EnrichR tools were used to identify the interactions and functions of lncRNAs.

Results

A total of 10 significantly dysregulated lncRNAs, including CCAT1, CCAT2, H19, HOTAIR, HULC, MALAT1, PCAT1, MEG3, PTENP1, and TUSC7, were chosen for designing a predictive panel. The diagnostic performance of the panel in distinguishing CRCs from the healthy group was AUC: 0.8554 in the training set and 0.8465 in the validation set. The AUC for early CRCs (I‐II TNM stages) was 0.8554 in the training set and 0.8465 in the validation set, and for advanced CRCs (III‐IV TNM stages) were 0.9281 in the training set and 0.9236 in the validation set. The corresponding AUC for CRCs vs polyps were 0.9228 (I‐IV TNM stages), 0.9042 (I‐II TNM stages), and 0.9362 (III‐IV TNM stages).

Conclusions

These data represented the application of analysis of fecal colonocytes lncRNAs in early detection of CRC.

Abstract

The expression profile of fecal lncRNAs in the training set. (A) Hierarchical clustering of fecal lncRNAs expression pattern of training set. The hierarchical clustering was designed with 30 differently expressed lncRNAs in 30 colorectal cancer (CRC) cases and 30 healthy controls. The clustering of lncRNAs placed in entire samples. (B) Pairwise comparison of lncRNAs in the training set. Normal samples were considered as controls, and their expression level values were considered as 1. The Mann‐Whitney U test was used to assess the differences of LncRNAs level between groups. The relative expression was considered as significant when <0.5 or >2.