Long noncoding RNA CCDC26 as a potential predictor biomarker contributes to tumorigenesis in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the fourth most common cancer worldwide and has the least patient survival rate of any cancer. Emerging studies have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were present in cancer patients and have shown great potential as powerful markers and therapeutic targets. However, little is known about the role of lncRNAs in PC. The present study aimed to investigate the expression pattern, clinical significance and biological function of lncRNA CCDC26 (CCDC26) in PC. With quantitative real-time PCR, we analyzed CCDC26 expression levels in 40 PC patients. We found that the CCDC26 expression was significantly higher in PC tissues than in normal tissues. CCDC26 levels were correlated with tumor size, tumor number, and reduced overall survival (OS). Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that CCDC26 expression is an independent prognostic factor of OS in patients with PC. Additionally, ROC^AUC of CCDC26 was up to 0.663, implicating that CCDC26 could be a diagnostic marker for distinguishing PC from normal. Knockdown of CCDC26 expression by small interfering RNA significantly promoted growth arrest and apoptosis. Moreover, we found that the expression of CCDC26 was positively correlated with PCNA and Bcl2. Our data suggest that CCDC26 may be identified as a novel oncogene in PC, and responsible for growth and apoptosis of cancer cell, partly by regulating the PCNA and Bcl2 expression. This work provides a novel biomarker and therapeutic target of PC for cancer clinic in future.