LncRNA LINC02257: A Potential Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. However, efficient markers for CRC diagnosis are limited. Accumulating evidence reveals that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are related to the genesis and developments of many tumors. In this study, we aimed to explore the diagnostic and prognostic value of LINC02257 in CRC patients. TCGA datasets were utilized to examine LINC02257 expression in a variety of human malignancies. The Kaplan-Meier method analysis was then used to study the link between LINC02257 expression and patient prognosis. Multivariate assays were applied for the determination of the associations of the variables and patients' survivals. RT-PCR was used to examine the level of LINC02257 expression in 14 pairs of clinical CRC tissues as well as many distinct CRC cell lines. CCK-8 assay was used to assess cell proliferation. We found that the expression of LINC02257 exhibited variable patterns of upregulation or downregulation in the various forms of cancer. In CRC, LINC02257 expression was distinctly increased in CRC specimens compared with normal specimens. The results of ROC curves revealed that the AUC was 0.886 (0.862 to 0.909, 95% CI, p < 0.001) in a comparison between CRC specimens and matched normal specimens. Survival studies revealed that high LINC02257 expression was associated with shorter overall survival and disease specific survival. More importantly, multivariate assays confirmed that high expression of LINC02257 was an independent prognostic factor for CRC patients. The results of RT-PCR indicated that LINC02257 expression was distinctly overexpressed in both CRC specimens and cell lines. Functionally, silence of LINC02257 distinctly suppressed the proliferation of CRC cells. In conclusion, our research showed that LINC02257 is an intriguing candidate as a diagnostic and prognostic indicator for patients diagnosed with CRC.