Diagnostic Significance of Downregulated circMORC3 as a Molecular Biomarker of Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Pilot Study

Figures & data

Figure 1 (A) CircMORC3 was downregulated in HSCC tissues compared to paired adjacent normal tissues (n = 33, **P < 0.001). (B) CircMORC3 was downregulated in 84.8% (28/33) of HSCC patients compared to corresponding noncancerous tissues.

Table 1 Correlation Between circMORC3 Expression Levels and Clinicopathological Features of Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients (HSCCs)

Clinicopathological Features	Number of Cases	Mean ± SD	P values
Age
≤60	17	2.146 ± 0.4481	0.5542
>60	16	1.710 ± 0.5806
T stage
T1-T2	18	2.667 ± 0.5862	0.0194*
T3-T4	15	1.008 ± 0.2152
N stage
N0	7	2.111 ± 0.4747	0.7810
N1-N3	26	1.860 ± 0.4430
TNM Stage
I, II	6	1.950 ± 0.5286	0.9619
III, IV	27	1.904 ± 0.4287
Pathological differentiation
Well/moderate	30	1.827 ± 0.3408	0.4611
Poor	3	2.770 ± 2.379
Tumor sizes
≤4 cm	22	2.321 ± 0.5034	0.0438*
>4 cm	11	1.097 ± 0.2917

Note: *indicated statistical significance.

Figure 2 (A) MORC3, the cognate mRNA of circMORC3, was downregulated in HSCC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues (n = 33, ***P < 0.0001). (B) CircMORC3 and MORC3 were significantly correlated in HSCC tissues (r = 0.415, P = 0.016).

Figure 3 The diagnostic potential of circMORC3 in HSCC tissues. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.834 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.737 to 0.931; P < 0.0001).

Figure 4 (A) Expression of circMORC3 was downregulated in HSCC plasma compared to non-tumor patients (n = 22, *P = 0.009). (B) The diagnostic value of circMORC3 in plasma. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.767 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.627 to 0.906; P = 0.002).