The Expression of and Long Non-coding RNAs in Lung Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been considered to be prospective biomarkers for diagnosing lung cancer due to the fundamental roles they hold in the regulating several cancer-related pathways.

METHODS

Using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method, we evaluated the expression of and lncRNAs in 32 lung cancer tissue samples and their corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissues (ANCTs) from lung cancer patients admitted to the Labbafi-Nejad Hospital from 2015 to 2016.

RESULTS

No significant differences were found in the expression of lncRNAs within the tumoral and non-tumoral tissue samples. Bayesian Multilevel analysis showed no association between the expression of lncRNAs and the patient's tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage following adjustments for age. Spearman correlation analysis revealed an inverse correlation between the expression of in tumoral tissues and age. Additionally, the difference in expression among the tumoral and non-tumoral tissues was inversely correlated with patients' age. Significant pairwise correlations were found between the expression of lncRNAs in both the tumoral and non-tumoral tissues.

CONCLUSION

Despite the findings supporting a role for the lncRNAs, and in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, our data suggests no relationship for expression of these lncRNAs in lung cancer, questioning their potential as lung cancer biomarkers.