Predictive Value of A Novel lncRNA LINC02518 in Evaluating the Prognosis of Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract BACKGROUND: The potential of lncRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has led to promising insights in therapeutic intervention. The clinical significance of LINC02518 in HCC is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of a novel long non-coding RNA LINC02518 for the prognosis of patients with HCC. METHODS: Between December 2005 and November 2011, 125 HCC patients in training group and 75 HCC patients in validation group who underwent liver surgery were involved in our study. The LINC02518 expression of HCC and corresponding non-tumor liver tissues was detected by microarray and qRT-PCR. These HCC patients were divided into high and low LINC02518 expression groups based on the threshold of the receiver operating characteristic curve. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to determine the prognosis of HCC patients.RESULTS: LINC02518 expression was upregulated in paired tumor samples compared to that in corresponding non-tumor samples in two groups. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the levels of LINC02518 in the diagnosis of HCC was 0.66, 95% CI: 0.59–0.73. HCC patients with high LINC02518 expression had significantly worse tumor recurrence-free, metastasis-free, disease-free, and overall survival than those with low LINC02518 expression.CONCLUSIONS: LINC02518 is negatively correlated with the prognosis of HCC and provides a promising strategy for the treatment and prognosis of HCC.