Abstract
AIM: To detect the expression of the long noncoding RNA HOTAIR in colon cancer and analyze its relationship with clinicopathological parameters of colon cancer. METHODS: Total RNA was extracted from 80 colon cancer tissues and matched tumor-adjacent normal colon tissues and reverse transcribed. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the expression of HOTAIR. The relationship between the expression of HOTAIR and clinicopathological parameters of colon cancer was analyzed. RESULTS: The expression of HOTAIR was significantly higher in colon cancer tissues than in matched tumor-adjacent normal colon tissues (P < 0.05). HOTAIR expression was significantly higher in cases with lymph node metastasis than in those without metastasis; in lowly differentiated and undifferentiated cases than in highly and moderately differentiated cases; and in stages III + IV cases than in stages I + II cases (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: HOTAIR expression is upregulated in colon cancer, suggesting that HOTAIR plays an important role in the tumorigenesis, development and metastasis of colon cancer. HOTAIR may act as an oncogene and represents a new molecular target for the treatment of colon cancer.