Elevated long noncoding RNA HAGLROS expression correlates with clinical progression and prognosis in osteosarcoma.

OBJECTIVE

Our study aimed to evaluate the expression pattern and prognostic value of long noncoding RNA HAGLROS (HAGLROS) in osteosarcoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

qRT-PCR was performed to detect the expression levels of HAGLROS in osteosarcoma tissues and matched normal bone tissues. The relationship between the expression of HAGLROS and the clinicopathological features was analyzed by chi-square test. The survival curves were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the difference by the log-rank test. The Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate survival analysis was used to assess predictors related to survival.

RESULTS

Herein, we showed that HAGLROS was frequently upregulated in osteosarcoma tissue and cell lines compared to normal human bone tissues (p < 0.01). In addition, HAGLROS upregulation more frequently occurred in osteosarcoma specimens with advanced TNM stage (p = 0.023), positively distant metastasis (p = 0.002) and poor differentiation (p = 0.021). Survival analysis showed that osteosarcoma patients with higher HAGLROS expression suffered poorer overall survival (p = 0.012) and disease-free survival (p = 0.003). In a multivariate Cox model, it was confirmed that HAGLROS up-regulation was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year overall survival (HR=3.546, 95% CI: 1.273-5.326; p = 0.002) and 5-year disease-free survival (HR=3.854, 95% CI: 1.427-5.885; p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

We showed that HAGLROS was an independent predictor of unfavorable prognosis in osteosarcoma patients and may serve as a potential target.