Increased expression of LncRNA PANDAR predicts a poor prognosis in gastric cancer.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as biomarkers and as important regulators in biological processes and tumorigenesis in cancer. PANDAR (promoter of CDKN1A antisense DNA damage activated RNA) serves as biomarkers and involves in development of multiple cancers. However, its clinical value of PANDAR in gastric cancer is still unknown. Hence, we carried out the present study aiming to identify the clinical significance of PANDAR in gastric cancer patients. We analyzed the expression levels of PANDAR in 100 paired gastric cancer tissues using Quantitative Real-time PCR. Our results showed that the expression of PANDAR was significantly increased in gastric cancer tissues compared with paired adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, high expression of PANDAR was correlated with depth of invasion, TNM stage and lymphatic metastasis. Importantly, high expression of PANDAR could serve as an independent unfavorable prognostic role in gastric cancer. In conclusion, PANDAR may be a potential novel biomarker that predicts prognosis in gastric cancer.