Abstract
Ovarian cancer (OC) is a highly lethal disease among all gynecologic malignant tumor types. Accumulating studies have indicated that certain long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve important roles in the development and progression of OC. In a previous study by our group, lncRNA BC041954 was identified as one of the most upregulated lncRNAs in OC. In the present study, the clinical significance of lncRNA BC041954 in OC was evaluated. The expression of BC041954 was detected in OC and non-tumor tissue (NT) samples using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Furthermore, the association between BC041954 and clinicopathological variables was analyzed using the Chi-square test. Survival was determined using Kaplan-Meier analysis. The prognostic significance of BC041954 was evaluated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. MicroRNA (miRNA)-lncRNA and miRNA-mRNA pairs were used to construct the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA competing endogenous RNA network with an in-house Perl script. BC041954 expression was increased in 103 OC tissues as compared with that in NT tissues. Upregulated BC041954 expression was significantly associated with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and distant metastasis. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with high BC041954 expression had lower overall survival (OS). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, BC041954 was also identified as an independent poor prognostic factor for OS in patients with OC. The results suggested that overexpression of the lncRNA BC041954 is a poor prognostic indicator in patients with OC.