Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common digestive cancers leading to deaths worldwide. In this study, we aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of miR-663 in CRC. The expression of miR-663 was detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The association between miR-663 and clinical parameters of subjects was evaluated by chi-square test. Additionally, ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic role of miR-663 in CRC. The expression of miR-663 in CRC patients was significantly upregulated compared with benign colorectal disease patients and healthy controls (p < .01). Besides, the expression of miR-663 was significantly associated with tumour differentiation, invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (p < .05). The cutoff value of miR-663 was 1.31, and the corresponding sensitivity and specificity were 83.1% and 73.8%, respectively. In ROC analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.806, which indicated that miR-663 could act as an independent diagnostic biomarker for CRC. In conclusion, miR-663 was up-regulated in CRC patients and may be an effective biomarker for CRC diagnosis.
Keywords: Serum; biomarker; colorectal cancer; diagnosis.