Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most difficult cancers to be detected and treated. Hunting for novel cancer-specific biomarkers for NPC patients is helpful for timely diagnosis and clinical treatment of NPC.
Methods: In this study, high-throughput circRNA sequencing was used to screen the circRNAs with expression variation in NPC patients. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression level of hsa_circRNA_001387 in the cancer tissues from 100 surgical patients, the peripheral blood samples from 100 radiotherapy patients and NPC cell lines. Based on clinical data of the patients, the relationship between hsa_circRNA_001387 and radiotherapy as well as antibody to Epstein–Barr (EB) virus was investigated. The use of this circRNA as a biomarker for NPC was also discussed.
Results: Expression of hsa_circRNA_001387 was significantly increased in the tumor tissues of NPC surgical patients, in the peripheral blood samples of NPC radiotherapy patients and in the NPC cell lines (P< 0.01). Expression of hsa_circRNA_001387 was significantly elevated in patients with well-differentiated tumors, lymph node metastasis and distant metastases, stage III–IV, positive EB virus, or family history of NPC. hsa_circRNA_001387 was closely associated with the prognosis of the patients. The overall survival and progression-free survival were shorter in patients with high expression. Through univariate and multivariate analyses, it was found that hsa_circRNA_001387 was considered as an independent factor for the prognosis of NPC patients.
Conclusion: This study reported for the first time that expression of hsa_circRNA_001387 is significantly upregulated, and it was also indicated that hsa_circRNA_001387 can be used as a novel biomarker for NPC.
Keywords: NPC, circRNA, hsa_circRNA_001387, biomarker, radiotherapy