Up-regulation of long noncoding RNA uc.338 predicts poor survival in non-small cell lung cancer

Long noncoding RNA ultraconserved element 338 (uc.338) is a long non-coding RNA reported to function as a promoter in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the function and potential mechanism of uc.338 in NSCLC is still unclear.

The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of uc.338 on the prognosis of patients with NSCLC.

The expression levels of uc.338 in NSCLC tissues and matched normal lung tissues were examined by real-time quantitative PCR. Then the association between uc.338 levels with clinical variables as well as survival time was investigated.

We found that uc.338 expression levels were significantly upregulated in NSCLC compared with the matched noncancerous lung tissues (P< 0.01). In addition, increased uc.338 expression was significantly associated with TNM stage (P< 0.003), lymph node metastasis (P< 0.006) and distant metastasis (P< 0.002). More importantly, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that higher uc.338 expression levels were associated with a shorter overall survival (P< 0.0016) and disease-free survival (p< 0.0001) in NSCLC patients. Finally, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that uc.338 was an independent risk factor for overall survival and disease-free survival.

Our results show that uc.338 may play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression and could serve as a potential independent prognostic biomarker for patients with NSCLC.