Affiliations: [a] Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, Guizhou, China | [b] Department of Oncology, Guizhou Provincial People’s Hospital, Guiyang, Guizhou, China | [c] State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China and Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China | [d] Affiliated Cancer Hospital & Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Xianzi Yang, Laboratory of Oncology, Affiliated Cancer Hospital & Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, 78 Hengzhigang Road, Yuexiu Region, Guangdong, China. Tel.: +86 20 66673666; Fax: +86 20 66673666; E-mail: yangxz@mail2.sysu.edu.cn.
Note: [1] The authors contributed equally to the manuscript.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: A recent study has demonstrated that the long non-coding RNA VPS9D1-AS1 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and predicts poor prognosis. However, roles of VPS9D1-AS1 in gastric cancer remained poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to decipher the expression of VPS9D1-AS1 in gastric cancer (GC) patients, so as to assess whether or not it could be used as a novel biomarker for prognosis in gastric cancer patients. METHODS: The expression of VPS9D1-AS1 was examined in cancer tissues and paired adjacent non-tumorous tissues from 126 gastric cancer patients using qRT-PCR. Correlations between the expression of VPS9D1-AS1 and clinicopathological parameters and patients’ survival were analyzed. RESULTS: VPS9D1-AS1 expression was downregulated in gastric cancer tissues than that in adjacent non-tumorous tissues (P< 0.001). VPS9D1-AS1 expression level was markedly correlated with tumor size and TNM stage in gastric cancer. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed low expression of VPS9D1-AS1 were correlated with poor overall and disease free survival. On multivariate analysis, the hazard ratio of VPS9D1-AS expression was 0.30 (95% CI = 0.13–0.66, P= 0.003) for overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our data suggest that downregulated VPS9D1-AS1 may be used as a novel prognosis predictor of gastric cancer.
Keywords: Long non-coding RNA, VPS9D1-AS1, gastric cancer, downregulation
