Four long noncoding RNAs as potential prognostic biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The study aimed to identify the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) biomarkers for occurrence and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and simultaneously to investigate the potential role of lncRNAs in the oncogenesis of HCC. The lncRNAs expression data and the corresponding clinical information of HCC samples were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The differentially expressed genes and lncRNAs were identified and the correlation networks were constructed. In this study, we identified 212 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 7,577 differentially expressed genes between liver HCC tumor tissues and normal tissue samples. And then, combining with clinical information, a total of 11 lncRNAs and 162 genes as HCC biomarkers were identified by comprehensive bioinformatics analysis. Further, through coexpress network analysis, we confirmed four lncRNAs (lncRNA_ANKRD10.IT1, lncRNA_CTD.2583A14.8, lncRNA_RP11.404P21.3, and lncRNA_RP11.488L18.10), which can serve as prognostic biomarkers for HCC. The four lncRNAs identified in this study may serve as a potential therapy target for HCC.