Characterization of microRNAs and lncRNAs in early-stage squamous cell carcinoma based on the analysis of TCGA datasets

Abstract

Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is highly malignant with poor prognosis, causing prevalent mortality worldwide. Early-stage lung cancer can be distinguished through reliable early detection to urge timely treatment. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) might play such a vital role in tumor initiation, progression and metastasis that they are becoming an important biomarker in cancer screening. To identify the relation between ncRNAs and the early-stage of LUSC, we analyzed the data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We identified 28 microRNAs (miRNAs) and 32 long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that were specifically expressed in early-stage LUSC, and the relationship was shown by the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network. The result derived from Kaplan–Meier survival curves analysis showed that two miRNAs (hsa-miR-22-3p and hsa-miR-552-3p) and a lncRNA (FLJ36000) were negatively correlated with overall survival, but two miRNAs (hsa-miR-27b-5p and hsa-miR-340-5p) and five lncRNAs (CHK8-CPT1B, LINC00167, S NHG15, TTC28-AS1 and WASH7P) were positively associated. Our study provides novel insight for better understanding of early-stage LUSC and facilitates the identification of potential biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of early-stage LUSC.