Novel circRNA signatures in cervical cancer: implications for early detection and screening
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are emerging as potential biomarkers due to their role in gene regulation. We explored whether specific circRNAs could serve as biomarkers for cervical cancer screening by distinguishing between different stages of cervical disease. We analyzed circRNA expression from archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded cervical tissues obtained from 272 women, of which 36% were benign, 33% were precancerous and 31% were cancerous. We performed differential expression analysis using DESeq2 to identify circRNAs that showed log2 fold change ≥2. We identified 5790 statistically significant circRNAs that were differentially expressed between benign and cancerous cervical tissues; circ_0123115 (log2FC = 5.10,