Objective: Abundant evidence has demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in the development of human neoplasms. A novel cancer-related lncRNA, leukemia inhibitory factor receptor antisense RNA 1 (LIFR-AS1), has been reported to be under-expressed in breast cancer and associated with poor prognosis, but its significance in gastric cancer (GC) remains to be determined. Therefore, we assessed the prognostic and diagnostic value of LIFR-AS1 in GC.
Patients and methods: Quantitative RT-PCR assay was used to detect the expression levels of LIFR-AS1 in GC tissues and adjacent normal tissues. The correlation between LIFR-AS1 expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed by Pearson's χ2-test. The disease-free survival and overall survival rates of GC patients were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to assess factors related to survival.
Results: In this study, levels of LIFR-AS1 were significantly higher in GC tumor samples relative to adjacent normal tissue samples. A ROC analysis suggested LIFR-AS1 expression could be reliably used to differentiate between normal and GC tumor tissue. In addition, elevated LIFR-AS1 expression was positively correlated with more advanced and aggressive GC features, such as larger tumor size, lymphatic metastasis, and more advanced TNM stage. Survival analyses revealed that elevated LIFR-AS1 expression was correlated with worse overall survival and disease-free survival. Multivariate analysis further confirmed the relevance of LIFR-AS1 as an independent predictor of GC patient outcomes.
Conclusions: In summary, these results indicate that the lncRNA LIFR-AS1 is a promising prognostic indicator in GC patients.