Clinical significance of urothelial carcinoma associated 1 in colon cancer

This study aimed to investigate the expression levels of urothelial carcinoma associated 1 (UCA1) in cancer tissues and plasma of colon cancer patients, and evaluate its clinical significance. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to determine the expression levels of UCA1 in 80 pairs of colon cancer and adjacent normal tissues, plasma samples from 20 healthy controls, 20 colon cancer patients before and after tumor removal. The relationships between UCA1 expression and clinical features and overall survival were analyzed. Compared with adjacent normal tissues, UCA1 was significantly upregulated in colon cancer tissues, especially in cases with LNM and advanced TNM stages (P < 0.05). High UCA1 expression was associated with LMN, higher pT category, and advanced TNM stages (P < 0.05). Patients with high UCA1 expression had worse survival time than those with low UCA1 expression (adjusted HR = 2.002, 95% CI 1.007-3.981, P = 0.048). Furthermore, plasma levels of UCA1 in colon cancer patients were significantly higher than those of controls (P = 0.016). There was significant difference in plasma level of UCA1 between samples taken before and after surgery (P = 0.048). In conclusion, tissue expression of UCA1 is related to prognosis in colon cancer. Plasma UCA1 may serve as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and disease monitoring of colon cancer patients.