Abstract
BACKGROUND: Tissue differentiation-inducing non-protein coding RNA (TINCR) has been shown to play a crucial role in pathogenesis of various types of human cancer including breast cancer (BC). The purpose of this study was to determine the potential prognostic value of serum lncRNA TINCR in BC. METHODS: Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect serum lncRNA TINCR levels in 72 triple-negative BC (TNBC) patients, 105 non-TNBC patients, 60 benign breast disease patients and 86 healthy subjects. RESULTS: The results showed that serum lncRNA TINCR level was significantly increased in BC, especially in TNBC. High circulating lncRNA TINCR was significantly correlated with worse clinicopathological features and clinical outcome of TNBC. Multivariate analysis revealed that serum lncRNA TINCR was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of TNBC. However, little association was found between serum lncRNA TINCR and the prognosis of non-TNBC. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings demonstrate that serum lncRNA TINCR might be a useful novel and non-invasive biomarker for the prognosis prediction of TNBC.