Prognostic significance of hsa_circ_0048122 to predict liver metastasis in early-stage colorectal cancer

Background Liver metastasis is the primary cause of lethal colorectal cancer (CRC). The predominant risk of poor patient prognosis in early-stage CRC emerges as metachronous liver metastasis. This necessitates the search for potential biomarkers for this metastasis to assess treatment outcomes and provide targeted therapy. Methods The role of hsa_circ_0048122 in predicting liver metastasis in CRC was probed in this work. This retrospective and multi-center investigation entailed exploration and identification stages with 158 and 176 patients. While RT-qPCR was employed to scrutinize hsa_circ_0048122 expression, Kaplan-Meier survival, and multivariate analyses were used to probe its prognostic impact in early-stage CRC and stage IV CRC cases, respectively. Results A strong correlation between liver metastases and hsa_circ_0048122 expression in stage IV CRC patients with a high hsa_circ_0048122 profile indicated a poor overall survival. Likewise, a high expression level of hsa_circ_0048122 appears as a potential predictor of liver metastases in patients' initial stages. Conclusions Predicting liver metastasis can be plausibly facilitated using Hsa_circ_0048122 as a biomarker in early-stage CRC cases.