The role of circular RNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 as a biomarker for prognostication of acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective Circular RNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (circ-PVT1) has been reported to be an oncogene and serves as a prognostic biomarker in several solid cancers and hematological malignancies. However, no study has been performed on the tumorigenesis role of circ-PVT1 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the correlation of circ-PVT1 with disease risk, clinical characteristics, cytogenetics/molecular genetics, and prognosis of AML. Methods A total of 68 de novo AML patients, 30 disease controls and 30 health donors were enrolled in this study. Circ-PVT1 expression in bone marrow (BM) was determined. Complete remission (CR) status after induction therapy, event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated in AML patients. Results Circ-PVT1 expression was different among AML patients, disease controls and health donors, which was highest in AML patients, followed by disease controls and lowest in health donors. Meanwhile, circ-PVT1 could distinguish AML patients from health donors and disease controls by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Furthermore, circ-PVT1 was correlated with BM blasts and FLT3-ITD mutation, but not other clinical features, such as French-American-Britain subtypes in AML patients. Moreover, circ-PVT1 expression was lower in AML patients with CR compared with those without CR. Besides, high circ-PVT1 expression was correlated with shorter EFS and OS in AML patients. After adjustment by multivariate Cox’s regression analysis, higher circ-PVT1 expression was an independent factor in predicting shorter EFS and OS for AML patients. Conclusion Circ-PVT1 potentially serves as a biomarker for evaluating the prognosis of AML patients.