Impact of lncRNA SOX9-AS1 overexpression on the prognosis and progression of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a latent and malignant tumor with a dismal prognosis. This study was to evaluate the clinical relevance and therapeutic potential of SOX9-AS1 expression in ICC.

METHODS

The cancerous tissues and adjacent normal tissues were collected from ICC patients. Blood samples from ICC, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) group, the extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC) group and the healthy controls were collected. SOX9-AS1 levels were evaluated in tissues (versus normal tissues) and plasma samples (versus plasma from HCC and ECC by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The diagnostic value of SOX9-AS1 for ICC was estimated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The relevancy between SOX9-AS1 expression and overall survival or recurrence-free survival was assessed by Kaplan-Meier curves multivariate analyses. The overexpression and knockdown of SOX9-AS1 on cell behavior were assessed by CCK-8 and transwell assay.

RESULTS

SOX9-AS1 levels were increased in ICC, both in the tissues and the cell lines. The upregulation of SOX9-AS1 showed a highly discriminative profile, distinguishing ICC patients from healthy subjects or HCC or ECC patients. Upregulation of SOX9-AS1 was related to shorter overall survival and recurrence-free survival. Muli-variate analysis revealed that SOX9-AS1 expression was an independent prognostic purpose factor of worst overall survival and recurrence-free survival.

CONCLUSIONS

SOX9-AS1 drives tumor growth and metastasis in ICC. SOX9-AS1 may be applied as a new diagnostic and prognostic purposed marker, in addition to a promising therapeutic target in ICC.