Abstract
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as vital players in tumor biology with potential value in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics. The lncRNA HULC (highly up-regulated in liver cancer) is increased in many malignancies, yet its serum expression profile and clinical value in gastric cancer (GC) patients remain unclear. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) for large-scale analysis of the serum expression of HULC in GC patients reliably detected circulating HULC and revealed that it is upregulated in GC patients. A high serum HULC level correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis stage, and H. pylori infection. The area under the ROC curve for HULC was up to 0.888, which was higher than that for CEA (0.694) and CA72-4 (0.514). Follow-up detection and Kaplan-Meier curve analysis revealed HULC is a good predictor of GC prognosis. Our present study indicates that circulating HULC may represent a novel serum tumor marker for early diagnosis and monitoring progression and prognosis of GC.
Highlights
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide [1]
The intra-assay coefficient of variation (CV) and the inter assay CV of HULC were satisfactory (Supplementary Table S1). These sample aliquots were maintained at room temperature (RT) for 0, 6, 12, 18, and 24 hr or were frozen and thawed 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10 times in nuclease-free tubes before processing for RNA isolation
A much larger proportion of the genome is transcribed into non-coding RNAs [24], 80% of which www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget are mRNA-like Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) transcripts
Summary
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide [1]. It continues to present a major clinical challenge due to delayed diagnosis, limited treatment options, metastasis, and recurrence [2]. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4) are the most widely used tumor markers for GC. Their clinical use is limited by low sensitivity and specificity [4, 5]. More sensitive, and noninvasive tumor marker assays are urgently needed to improve screening, diagnosis, prognostic evaluation, recurrence monitoring, and follow-up observation of therapeutic efficiency
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