CircFADS2: A potential prognostic biomarker of colorectal cancer.

IMPACT STATEMENT: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy worldwide with the second highest mortality rate. Although multidisciplinary cooperative therapies are helpful for improving the survival of CRC patients, the prognosis remains poor. Therefore, it is imperative to seek new biomarkers for the development of individualized treatment for each CRC patient. Circular RNA, an endogenous transcript with specific covalent closed loop, exhibits higher stability, conservation and expression abundance than the corresponding linear component and thus may be utilized as a promised biomarker. Although the majority of studies have focused on circular RNA expression profiling in various types of cancers, evidence supporting their critical role in the diagnosis and prognosis of CRC is limited. This study aimed to screen and identify novel circular RNA biomarkers of CRC by chip analysis and qPCR verification, and to highlight their potential as targets for CRC prognosis, and therapy.