Study on the relationship between serum LncRNA PCAT1,miR-128-3p levels and pathological characteristics and postoperative liver metastasis in colon cancer patients

SHI Yanke; YAN Tingqi; SUN Weitao; CHEN Zhifei; SUN Jiangjiang; HUO Haoran; WANG Junwei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-4136.2024.05.008

Abstract：Objective To investigate the relationship between serum long non-coding RNA(LncRNA)prostate cancer-related transcription factor 1(PCAT1),microRNA-128-3p(miR-128-3p)levels and pathological features and postoperative liver metastasis in colon cancer patients.Methods One hundred and fifty-seven colon cancer patients(colon cancer group)who underwent surgical treatment in Handan Central Hospital from February 2019 to January 2021 were selected as the study subjects,and 55 healthy subjects in the same period were selected as the control group.The expression levels of serum LncRNA PCAT1 and miR-128-3p in two groups were detected and compared by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR.The correlation between the expression levels of serum LncRNA PCAT1 and miR-128-3p in colon cancer patients was analyzed,and the relationship between the expression levels of serum LncRNA PCAT1 and miR-128-3p and the clinicopathological features of colon cancer was analyzed.After 3 years of follow-up,the incidence of liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery was counted.The risk factors of liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Logistic regression models,and the predictive value of serum LncRNA PCAT1 and miR-128-3p for liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve.Results Compared with the control group,the expression level of serum LncRNA PCAT1 in colon cancer group increased,while the expression level of miR-128-3p decreased(P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that serum LncRNA PCAT1 expression level was negatively correlated with serum miR-128-3p in colon cancer patients(r=-0.661,P＜0.001).Comparison of serum LncRNA PCAT1 expression levels in patients with different TNM stages showed that Stage Ⅰ＜Stage Ⅱ＜Stage Ⅲ.Comparison of serum miR-128-3p expression levels showed that Stage Ⅰ＞Stage Ⅱ＞Stage Ⅲ(P＜0.05).Compared with no lymph node metastasis and no serosal invasion,the expression level of serum LncRNA PCAT1 in colon cancer patients with lymph node metastasis and serosal invasion was higher,and the expression level of serum miR-128-3p was lower(P＜0.05).After 3 years of follow-up,the incidence of liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery was 25.48％(40/157).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that,TNM Stage Ⅲ,lymph node metastasis,and elevated serum LncRNA PCAT1 expression level were independent risk factors for liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery(P＜0.05),and elevated serum miR-128-3p expression level was a protective factor(P＜0.05).ROC curve analysis showed that,the AUC of serum LncRNA PCAT1,miR-128-3p alone and their combination in predicting liver metastasis after colon cancer surgery were 0.761,0.763 and 0.836 respectively,and the sensitivity of the combined prediction was higher than that of the single prediction(P＜0.05).Conclusions The high expression of LncRNA PCAT1 and the low expression of miR-128-3p in serum of colon cancer patients are closely relate to TNM stage,lymph node metastasis,serosal invasion and postoperative liver metastasis,which can be used as a potential auxiliary index to predict postoperative liver metastasis of colon cancer.