Background: Previous studiess have demonstrated that rhabdomyosarcoma 2-associated transcript (RMST) is an indispensable factor in promoting neuronal differentiation. Gene Expression Omnibus datasets showed that long noncoding RNA RMST was downregulated in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Further experiments were conducted to detect the expression and diagnostic value of RMST in PTC.
Materials and methods: Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction was applied to uncover the expression of RMST in PTC tissues. Chi-square (χ2) analysis was employed to evaluate the association between RMST and clinical features. The area under the curve (AUC) and receiver-operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the feasibility of using RMST to predict PTC, lymph node metastases and the tumor–node–metastasis (TNM) stage.
Result: RMST expression was significantly in to PTC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous thyroid tissues (P<0.001). We also found that low tissue RMST expression was related to the TNM stage (P=0.046), and lymph node metastasis (P=0.002). The AUC value of PTC vs. adjacent noncancerous tissues was 0.7243 [95% confidence interval (CI)=0.6411-0.8076, P<0.0001] and AUC values of patients with lymph node metastasis vs. patients with out lymph node metastasis and stage I/IIPTC vs. stage III/IV PTC were 0.7148 (95%CI =6018-0.8351, P=0.0012) and , 0.7024 (95%CI= 0.5817-0.8231, P=0.0066), respectively.
Conclusion: In conclusion, RMST is associated with PTC progression and may serve as a diagnostic biomarker for predicting PTC, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage.