Overexpression of long non-coding RNA MINCR contributes to progressive clinicopathological features and poor prognosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

MYC-induced long non-coding RNA (MINCR) has been shown to be a long noncoding RNA that facilitates the progression of a number of malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, few studies have explored the expression and role of MINCR in HCC. In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical significance of MINCR in HCC. MINCR expression levels in 161 pairs of HCC tissues and pair-matched adjacent normal tissues were examined by qRT-PCR. The correlation between clinicopathological features and MINCR expression was analyzed by x2 test. Differences in patient survival were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method and a log-rank test. The significance of survival variables was analyzed using the Cox multivariate proportional hazards model. Our results showed that MINCR was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues, compared with paired adjacent nontumor tissue samples. MINCR upregulation was correlated with TNM stage (p = 0.005) and histological grade (p = 0.001). The results of Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test indicated that the 5-years overall survival of the high MINCR group was significantly lower than that of low MINCR group (p = 0.0035). Univariate and multivariate analysis results indicated that MINCR was an independent prognostic factor in HCC (p < 0.05). We firstly provided the possibility that evaluating MINCR in HCC tissues may have prognostic and predictive value in the clinical management of HCC patients.