Plasma lncRNA GAS8-AS1 as a Potential Biomarker of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Chinese Patients

Abstract

Background . Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were recently shown to have potential in the diagnosis and prognosis for numerous cancers. lncRNA GAS8-AS1 is decreased in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) tissue, but its plasma expression and clinical value in patients with PTC remain unknown. Materials and Methods . We investigated the expression profile of plasma GAS8-AS1 in 97 patients with PTC and 39 patients with nodular goiter by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results . GAS8-AS1 expression in plasma was downregulated in patients with PTC in comparison with those in nodular goiters (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). A low level of plasma GAS8-AS1 expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis (LNM) (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). Multivariate analysis showed that a reduced GAS8-AS1 level in plasma was associated with LNM (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for GAS8-AS1 was 0.746 in LNM prediction (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). Conclusion . The present study indicates that circulating GAS8-AS1 is a potential biomarker for PTC diagnosis and LNM prediction.