Objective To screen differentially-expressed circRNA in plasma exosomes of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and verify its diagnostic value for NSCLC.

Methods The plasma exosomes of six patients with NSCLC and six healthy people were analyzed by circRNA sequencing. The expression of hsa_circ_0052513 in plasma exosomes of 60 NSCLC patients and 60 healthy controls was detected by qRT-PCR. The expression level of hsa_circ_0052513 in plasma exosomes of NSCLC patients before and after surgery was detected by qRT-PCR. The correlation between the expression of plasma exosomal hsa_circ_0052513 and clinical data of patients with NSCLC was statistically analyzed.

Results Sequencing results showed that the expression of hsa_circ_0052513 in the plasma exosomes of NSCLC patients was higher than that of healthy controls, and the results were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Hsa_circ_0052513 was decreased in patients with NSCLC after tumor resection (P<0.05). The high expression of plasma exosomal hsa_circ_0052513 in patients with NSCLC was correlated with tumor size, distant metastasis, and TNM stage of NSCLC (all P<0.05). The area under the curve of plasma exosomal hsa_circ_0052513 in the diagnosis of patients with NSCLC was 0.7904 (P<0.0001).

Conclusion Hsa_circ_0052513 is highly expressed in the plasma exosomes of patients with NSCLC and is related to tumor size, metastasis, and TNM stage. Hence, Hsa_circ_0052513 could be a new diagnostic marker for NSCLC.