title: Expression and clinicopathological significance of the lncRNA HOXA11-AS in colorectal cancer.
abstract: HOXA11 antisense RNA (HOXA11-AS) is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that is important in determining cancer progression. HOXA11-AS was recently identified as a novel biomarker in lung cancer progression. However, its role in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains poorly understood. The present study aimed to analyze lncRNA HOXA11-AS expression in CRC and investigate a possible association between HOXA11-AS and clinicopathological factors. HOXA11-AS expression was examined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in 84 CRC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues, in addition to 3 CRC cell lines and 1 human normal colorectal cell line. The results demonstrated that HOXA11-AS expression was decreased in the CRC tissues and cell lines compared with that of the controls (P<0.05). Clinicopathological analysis indicated that low HOXA11-AS expression was significantly correlated with tumor size, advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage, lymph node metastasis and carcinoembryonic antigen level of patients with CRC (P<0.05). Furthermore, the areas under the curve (AUC) were 0.613 and 0.628 for HOXA11-AS, indicating that the lncRNA is able to distinguish CRC tissue from non-cancerous tissue, and CRC tissue with lymph node metastasis from CRC without lymph node metastasis. Therefore, HOXA11-AS may function as a potential biomarker and target for novel therapeutic strategies to treat CRC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chengfei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jialiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gan
keywords: HOXA11-AS; biomarker; colorectal cancer; long non-coding RNA