Objective      To establish detection method of lncRNA HOTAIR expression in serum and access its significance in the diagnosis of colon cancer.        Methods      In total

47 serum samples from identified colon cancer patients

40 serum samples from healthy subjects and 10 pairs of colon cancer tissues and tumor-adjacent tissues were collected. Total RNAs were isolated from the serums and tissues by using TRIzol LS and TRIzol reagents. The HOTAIR expression in the serums and tissues was measured

by qRT-PCR.       Results      The HOTAIR expression was significantly higher in the colon cancer tissues or serums of patients with colon cancer than in the tumor-adjacent tissues or serums of healthy subjects (P0.05

P0.01). Furthermore

the colon cancer patients with TNM stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ had significantly higher serum levels of HOTAIR than the healthy subjects (P0.05)

and the patients with TNM stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ had significantly higher serum levels of HOTAIR than ones with TNM stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ (P0.01). Moreover

the colon cancer patients with or without lymph node metastasis had significantly higher serum levels of HOTAIR than the healthy subjects (P0.01)

and the patients with lymph node metastasis had significantly higher serum levels of HOTAIR than ones without lymph node metastasis (P0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of serum HOTAIR in the diagnosis of colon cancer were 65.96% and 85.00%

respectively

and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.741 0. A positive correlation was observed between serum HOAIR and CA199 (P0.01

R

2

=0.147 1).       Conclusion      The method for the detection of serum HOTAIR is successfully established

and the serum HOTAIR may serve as a novel noninvasive biomarker for the diagnosis of colon cancer.