Circular RNA of vimentin expression as a valuable predictor for acute myeloid leukemia development and prognosis

The focus of this study was to investigate the expression status of Circ‐vimentin (VIM) and further analyze its pathogenesis and clinical significance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was carried on Circ‐VIM in 113 AML patients and 42 healthy controls. Circ‐VIM was significantly upregulated in AML compared with control and was positively correlated with white blood cells (WBC) count. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that the performance of Circ‐VIM expression could serve as a promising biomarker for differentiating AML patients from controls. Significant correlations of Circ‐VIM expression were found with WBC and French–American–British classifications. Survival analyses further showed that over‐expressed Circ‐VIM were associated with markedly shorter overall survival (OS) and leukemia‐free survival (LFS) in whole‐cohort AML, nonacute promyelocytic leukemia AML and cytogenetically normal‐AML patients. Multivariate analysis also disclosed that Circ‐VIM over‐expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for OS and LFS in AML patients. Remarkably, Pearson correlation analysis evidenced that the expression of Circ‐VIM was positively correlated with VIM expression in all AML patients. These results indicated that overexpression Circ‐VIM could serve as a significant biomarker.