Overexpression of long non-coding RNA CCAT1 is a novel biomarker of poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have demonstrated that lncRNA CCAT1 was increased in many types of cancers and was involved in various cellular processes related to carcinogenesis. However, the clinical significance and prognostic value of lncRNA CCAT1 in breast cancer (BC) haven't been investigated.

METHODS: Expression levels of lncRNA CCAT1 in 92 pairs of BC cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. In order to determine its prognostic value, overall survival and progression-free survival were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazard analysis.

RESULTS: Expression levels of lncRNA CCAT1 in BC tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal tissues. High expression of lncRNA CCAT1 was associated with differentiation grade, TNM stage, and lymph node metastases. Kaplan-Meier analysis with the log-rank test indicated that high expression of lncRNA CCAT1 had a decreased overall survival and progression-free survival. Multivariable analysis was further identified high expression of lncRNA CCAT1 as an independent prognosis factor for overall survival and progression-free survival.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provided that the expression of lncRNA CCAT1 was up-regulated in BC and associated with overall survival as well as progression-free survival, suggesting that lncRNA CCAT1 could be a potential prognostic biomarker for BC progression.