Circular RNA profiling facilitates the diagnosis and prognostic monitoring of breast cancer: A pair‐wise meta‐analysis

Abstract

Background As circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been found to significantly involve in the onset and progression of multiple malignant tumors including breast cancer (BC), this study aims at evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic values of circRNAs in this malady. Methods Available databases were thoroughly searched to collect studies on the diagnosis and/or prognosis of BC using circRNA profiling. The updated Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS‐2) tool and the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) were used to assess the underlying bias of included studies. Clinical characteristics of the studies were merged by the quantitative‐weighted integral method to obtain the combined effects. Results Sixteen studies were included, comprising 2438 BC cases and 271 noncancerous controls. The expression signature covered 24 circRNAs (down‐regulated: circ‐VRK1, hsa_circ_0068033, hsa_circ_103110, hsa_circ_104689, and hsa_circ_104821; up‐regulated: circAGFG1, hsa_circ_0001785, hsa_circ_0108942, hsa_circ_0001785, hsa_circ_006054, hsa_circ_100219, hsa_circ_406697, circEPSTI1, circANKS1B, circGFRA1, circ_0103552, CDR1‐AS, has_circ_001569, hsa_circ_001783, circFBXL5, circ_0005230, circAGFG1, circ‐UBAP2, and circ_0006528). The sensitivity and specificity of circRNAs in distinguishing BC patients from noncancerous controls were 0.65 and 0.68, and the corresponding area under the curve was 0.66. Survival analysis revealed that patients showing highly expressed oncogenic circRNAs were associated with increased mortality risks of BC in overall survival (univariate analysis: hazard ratio [HR] = 3.30, P = .000; multivariate analysis: HR = 3.07, P = .000), and disease‐free survival (HR = 8.26, P = .000). Stratified analysis based on circRNA expression status and control type also showed robust results. Conclusions Circular RNA profiling presents prominent diagnostic and prognostic values in BC, and can be rated as a promising tool facilitating its early diagnosis and survival.

Identification of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network in luminal breast cancers by integrated analysis of microarray datasets

“…For example, the upregulation of circ_0008812 and circ_0001583 can contribute to the proliferation of breast cancer cells (Lin et al, 2022). Though hsa_circ_0086735 has few reports, hsa_circUBAP2 has been reported as an upregulated circRNA in breast cancer (Ma et al, 2021), just like the upregulated expression in luminal-subtype in this study. We also revealed the promoting role of hsa_circ_0086735 in breast cancer cell growth, which was in line with its role in glioma (Wang et al, 2021).…”

Inverse Impact of Cancer Drugs on Circular and Linear RNAs in Breast Cancer Cell Lines

“…This study would broaden the concept of biomarkers [ 22 , 23 ], applying it not only to cellular contests but also to a specific pharmacological response. We selected a panel of circRNAs from genes encoding co-activators of oncogenic processes or representing noticeable regulators of the pathways involved in the pathogenesis of BC.…”

Circular RNAs are Potential Prognostic Markers of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Findings of a Meta-Analysis Study

“…A number of meta-analysis studies have established circRNA as a prognostic biomarker for cancer ( 19 ), such as hepatocellular carcinoma ( 46 ), colorectal cancer ( 47 ) and breast cancer ( 48 ). However, to the best of our knowledge, no meta-analysis has been performed to determine the prognostic significance of circRNAs in HNSCCs.…”