Published online Feb 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i2.210
Peer-review started: July 11, 2020
First decision: November 16, 2020
Revised: November 30, 2020
Accepted: December 17, 2020
Article in press: December 17, 2020
Published online: February 27, 2021
Processing time: 208 Days and 10.6 Hours
Investigating molecular biomarkers that accurately predict prognosis is of considerable clinical significance. Accumulating evidence suggests that long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) are frequently aberrantly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC).
To elucidate the prognostic function of multiple lncRNAs serving as biomarkers in CRC.
We performed lncRNA expression profiling using the lncRNA mining approach in large CRC cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to identify the optimal cutoff point at which patients could be classified into the high-risk or low-risk groups. Based on the Cox coefficient of the individual lncRNAs, we identified a nine-lncRNA signature that was associated with the survival of CRC patients in the training set (n = 175). The prognostic value of this nine-lncRNA signature was validated in the testing set (n = 174) and TCGA set (n = 349). The prognostic models, consisting of these nine CRC-specific lncRNAs, performed well for risk stratification in the testing set and TCGA set. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that this predictive model had good performance.
Multivariate Cox regression and stratification analysis demonstrated that this nine-lncRNA signature was independent of other clinical features in predicting overall survival. Functional enrichment analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways and Gene Ontology terms further indicated that these nine prognostic lncRNAs were closely associated with carcinogenesis-associated pathways and biological functions in CRC.
A nine-lncRNA expression signature was identified and validated that could improve the prognosis prediction of CRC, thereby providing potential prognostic biomarkers and efficient therapeutic targets for patients with CRC.
Core Tip: To the best of our knowledge, preliminary investigation of the function of this nine-long non-coding ribonucleic acid signature has not been reported, which further strengthens the possibility it may be used to effectively predict the disease course in colorectal cancer.