Long noncoding RNA signature in predicting metastasis following tamoxifen treatment for ER-positive breast cancer.

Abstract

We aimed to develop a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression signature that can predict response to tamoxifen. LncRNA expression profiling was mined in two cohorts from Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE6532, GSE9195, n=412). A set of lncRNAs (LINC01191, RP4-639F20.1 and CTC-429P9.3) associated with distant metastasis-free survival was established. Estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients in the training series could be classified into high- and low-risk groups with significantly different distant metastasis-free survival values based on this signature (hazard ratio [HR]: 5.11; p=7.28×10-8). The prognostic ability of this signature was confirmed in validation sets 1 (HR: 2.58; p=1.54×10-2) and 2 (HR: 10.06; p=6.85×10-3). The lncRNA signature may have possible clinical implications in the selection of high-risk patients for tamoxifen therapy.