Long non-coding RNA ZFAS1 interacts with CDK1 and is involved in p53-dependent cell cycle control and apoptosis in colorectal cancer.

We determined expression of 83 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and identified ZFAS1 to be significantly up-regulated in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue. In cohort of 119 CRC patients we observed that 111 cases displayed at least two-times higher expression of ZFAS1 in CRC compared to paired normal colorectal tissue (P < 0.0001).

MicroRNA expression profiling identifies miR-31-5p/3p as associated with time to progression in wild-type RAS metastatic colorectal cancer treated with cetuximab.

The aim of our study was to investigate whether microRNAs (miRNAs) could serve as predictive biomarkers to anti-EGFR therapy (cetuximab, panitumumab) in patients with RAS wild-type (wt-RAS) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Historical cohort of 93 patients with mCRC (2006-2009) was included and further divided into exploratory and validation cohorts. MiRNAs expression profiling was performed on the exploratory cohort of 41 wt-KRAS mCRC patients treated with cetuximab to identify miRNAs associated with time to progression (TTP).