LncRNA MEG3 acts a biomarker and regulates cell functions by targeting ADAR1 in colorectal cancer

Table 1 Correlation of maternally expressed gene 3 levels and clinicopathological features in colorectal cancer

Clinical features	Cases	Serum MEG3 expression	P value
Age in yr			0. 956
≥ 60	54	0.678 ± 0.013
< 60	72	0.679± 0.043
Gender			0.400
Male	85	0.665 ± 0.032
Female	41	0.696 ± 0.038
Tumor site			0.843
Colon	58	0.671 ± 0.044
Rectum	68	0.676 ± 0.032
Tumor size in cm			0.001
≥ 5	43	0.748 ± 0.031
< 5	83	0.567 ± 0.039
pT, TNM			0.098
T1+T2	93	0.617 ± 0.025
T3+T4	33	0.693 ± 0.019
Lymph node metastasis			0.236
Positive	71	0.717 ± 0.046
Negative	55	0.662 ± 0.034
Clinical stage, TNM
III	72	0.867 ± 0.049	0.001
I+II	54	0.562 ± 0.018
Pathological differentiation
Well/moderate	59	0.665 ± 0.050	0.322
Poor	67	0.710 ± 0.032

TNM: Tumor node metastasis; MEG3: Maternally expressed gene 3.

Table 2 Clinicopathological characteristics in our study

	Tissue samples, n = 42	Serum samples
		Colorectal cancer, n = 126	Healthy controls, n = 48
Age
mean ± SD	56.8 ± 6.5	56.9 ± 5.9	56.3 ± 6.4
Median (range)	57 (44-73)	58 (38-74)	58 (38-73)
Gender
Male	27	85	33
Female	15	41	15
Tumor site
Colon	17	58
Rectum	25	68
Tumor size in cm
≥ 5	12	43
< 5	30	83
pT, TNM
T1+T2	33	93
T3+T4	9	33
Lymph node metastasis
Positive	18	71
Negative	22	55
Clinical stage, TNM
III	13	72
I+II	29	54
Pathological differentiation	26	59
Well/moderate Poor	16	67
high vs low
Lymph node metastasis, positive vs negative	0.988
	0.225
Clinical stage of	0.440
TNM, III vs I + II	2.789
Pathological differentiation, well/moderate vs poor
Serum lncRNA
MEG3 expression,

TNM: Tumor node metastasis.

Table 3 Univariate and multivariate survival analysis

Variables	Univariate analysis			Multivariate analysis
	HR	95%CI	P value	HR	95%CI	P value
Age in yr, ≥ 60 vs < 60	0.806	0.481-1.352	0.414	- - -	- - -	- - -
Gender, male vs female	1.265	0.757-2.178	0.396	- - -	- - -	- - -
Tumor site, colon vs rectum	0.681	0.405-1.143	0.146	- - -	- - -	- - -
Tumor size in cm, ≥ 5 vs < 5	0.576	0.342-0.968	0.037	0.436	0.236-0.806	0.008
pT of TNM, T1 + T2 vs T3 + T4	0.572	0.332-0.986	0.044	0.942	0.477-1.861	0.863
Lymph node metastasis, positive vs negative	0.988	0.591-1.651	0.964	- - -	- - -	- - -
Clinical stage of TNM, III vs I + II	0.225	0.122-0.414	0.001	0.039	0.012-0.124	0.001
Pathological differentiation, well/moderate vs poor	0.440	0.258-0.752	0.003	0.641	0.324-1.267	0.201
Serum lncRNA MEG3 expression, high vs low	2.789	1.615-4.816	0.001	0.173	0.063-0.480	0.002

TNM: Tumor node metastasis; lncRNA: Long non-coding RNAs; MEG3: Maternally expressed gene 3; CI: Confidence interval; HR: Hazard ratio.