Identification of a lncRNA prognostic signature-related to stem cell index and its significance in colorectal cancer.

The relationship between long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and the mRNA stemness index (mRNAsi) in colorectal cancer (CRC) is still unclear. The mRNAsi, mRNAsi-related lncRNAs and their clinical significance were analyzed by bioinformatic approaches in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-COREAD dataset. mRNAsi was negatively related to pathological features but positively related to overall survival and recurrence-free survival in CRC. A five mRNAsi-related lncRNAs prognostic signature was further developed and showed independent prognostic factors related to overall survival in CRC patients, due to the five mRNAsi-related lncRNAs involved in several pathways of the cancer stem cells and malignant cancer cell phenotypes. The present study highlights the potential roles of mRNAsi-related lncRNAs as alternative prognostic markers.