Expression and diagnostic significance of lncRNA NEAT1 in peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression level and diagnostic value of lncRNA NEAT1 in the plasma of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression level of NEAT1 in plasma samples of 258 patients with NSCLC, 115 patients with benign lung diseases and 70 healthy controls, and then the differential expression levels of NEAT1 were compared in the 3 groups. The correlation between the expression level of NEAT1 in plasma and the clinical characteristics of patients with NSCLC was analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to analyze the diagnostic value of the NEAT1 level in plasma for NSCLC. Results In the NSCLC patients, the plasma level of NEAT1 was significantly higher than that in the healthy controls (P 60 year-old group and the group whith tumor size >3 cm, with statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). ROC curve results showed that plasma NEAT1 level had value for diagnosis of NSCLC, early stage NSCLC (stageⅠ+stageⅡ) or patients whose tumor size was equal to or less than 3 cm, with the areas under the curve of 0.72, 0.73 and 0.67, respectively. The plasma level of NEAT1 had a higher sensitivity (93%) as well as a higher negative predictive value (94%) to distinguish NSCLC with the tumor size ≤3 cm. Conclusion NEAT1 is highly expressed in the plasma of NSCLC patients. NEAT1 could be used as a potential diagnostic marker for NSCLC, and shows early diagnostic value for lung cancer.

Keywords

• non-small cell lung cancer
• long non-coding rna
• neat1
• plasma
• diagnosis