Expression changes and clinical significance of CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues

ZHANG Yan; HAN Jianqiu; TIAN Jing; WANG Lu; XING Yaling; ZHAO Mingfei; HAO Lihui

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2023.34.004

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression changes and significance of circular RNA(Circ)ITGB6 and Cir-cPBX3 in epithelial ovarian cancer(EOC)tissues.Methods Eighty patients with EOC who underwent radical operation for ovarian cancer were selected.Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was applied to detect the expression of CircIT-GB6 and CircPBX3 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues(≥3 cm away from the cancer tissues).Pearson correlation analy-sis was applied to analyze the correlation between the expression of circITGB6 and CircPBX3 in EOC tissues.The expres-sion differences of CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 in cancer tissues with different clinical and pathological characteristics were compared.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis(Log Rank test)was used to analyze the difference in survival prognosis among EOC patients with different CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 expression levels.COX proportional risk model analysis was applied to analyze factors affecting the prognosis of EOC patients.Results The relative expression levels of CircITGB6 and CircP-BX3 in EOC cancer tissues were 3.17±0.57 and 4.02±0.62,respectively,which were higher than those in the normal ovarian tissues(1.06±0.24 and 1.23±0.32),with statistically significant difference(t=30.515,35.766,both P<0.05).There was a significant positive correlation between the expression of CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 in EOC cancer tis-sues(r=0.685,P<0.05).The relative expression levels of CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 in EOC cancer tissues with FIGO stage III and combined lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those in FIGO stage I-II and no lymph node metastasis(both P<0.05).The overall 3-year survival rates of the high and low expression groups of CircITGB6 were 51.28%(20/39)and 80.49%(33/41),respectively.The overall 3-year survival rates of the high and low expression groups of CircPBX3 were 55.26%(21/38)and 76.19%(32/42),respectively.The 3-year cumulative survival rate of the high CircITGB6 expression group was significantly lower than that of low CircITGB6 expression group(Log Rank x2= 8.179,P<0.05).The 3-year cumulative survival rate of the high CircPBX3 expression group was significantly lower than that of low CircPBX3 expression group(Log Rank x2=5.763,P<0.05).FIGO stage III,lymph node metastasis,high Cir-cITGB6 expression,and high CircPBX3 expression were independent risk factors for the poor survival prognosis of EOC pa-tients.Conclusions The expression of CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 are elevated in EOC cancer tissue,which are related to tumor FIGO staging and lymph node metastasis.Elevated CircITGB6 and CircPBX3 are independent risk factors for poor survival prognosis in EOC patients.