Using circular RNA hsa_circ_0000190 as a new biomarker in the diagnosis of gastric cancer

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNA) are an abundant class of non-coding RNAs in mammalian cells. However, their value in the diagnosis of cancers remains unknown. In this study, we focused on hsa_circ_(_)0000190, which was found to be down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues in our previous microarray screening. Patients and methods: The hsa_circ_0000190 levels in 104 paired gastric cancer tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues, 104 plasma samples from patients with gastric cancer and 104 plasma samples from health controls were detected by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Then, the association between the expression level of hsa_circ_0000190 and the clinicopathological features of patients with gastric cancer was further analyzed. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated to evaluate the diagnostic value. Results: Hsa_circ_0000190 was first found to be down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues (P < 0.001) and plasma samples from patients with gastric cancer (P < 0.001). Its expression levels were significantly correlated with tumor diameter (P = 0.034), lymphatic metastasis (P = 0.026), distal metastasis (P = 0.001), TNM stage (P = 0.001), and CA19-9 levels (P = 0.019). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of hsa_circ_0000190 in tissues and plasma were up to 0.75 and 0.60, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the combination were 0.712 and 0.750; the AUC was increased to 0.775. Conclusions: These results indicated that hsa_circ_0000190 may be a novel non-invasive biomarker for the diagnosis of gastric cancer. Its AUC, sensitivity and specificity are better than commonly used biomarkers such as CEA and CA19-9. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.