Prognostic value of long non-coding RNA UCA1 in human solid tumors

// Fang-teng Liu 1 , Pei-qian Zhu 1 , Hong-liang Luo 1 , Yi Zhang 1 , Cheng Qiu 1 1 Department of General Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330000, Jiangxi Province, P. R. China Correspondence to: Pei-qian Zhu, email: 3141723790@qq.com Hong-liang Luo, email: 517295653@qq.com Keywords: long non-coding RNA, UCA1, carcinoma, prognosis, meta-analysis Received: April 24, 2016      Accepted: July 28, 2016      Published: August 09, 2016 ABSTRACT Background: Numerous studies have shown that the expression of UCA1 was aberrantly upregulated in various cancer types. High expression of UCA1 was reported to be associated with unfavorable prognosis in cancer patients. Results: A total of 1240 patients from 15 articles were included. The results indicated that a significantly shorter OS was observed in patients with high expression level of UCA1 (HR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.43–1.99), in the subgroup analysis, the association was also observed in patients with cancers of digestive system (HR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.59–2.66). Statistical significance was also observed in subgroup meta-analysis stratified by the cancer type, cut-off value, analysis type and sample size. Furthermore, poorer DFS was observed in patients with high expression level of UCA1 (HR = 2.54; 95% CI: 1.09–4.00). Additionally, the pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that increased UCA1 was also related to positive lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.98, 95% CI: 2.06–4.30), distant metastasis (OR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.77–5.58) and poor clinical stage (OR = 2.76, 95% CI: 2.08–3.68). Materials and Methods: A comprehensive retrieval was conducted in multiple databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and CNKI. We collected relevant articles to explore the association between the expression levels of UCA1 and prognosis. Conclusions: High expression level of UCA1 was associated with poor clinical outcome. UCA1 could serve as a novel biomarker for prognosis and might be a potential predictive factor for clinicopathological characteristics in various cancers. Further studies should be performed to verify the clinical utility of UCA1 in human solid tumors.