Abstract
BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNAs have been known to be involved in various cancers. This study aimed to find a long noncoding RNA signature to predict the prognostic risk of patients with digestive cancers, including esophageal carcinoma, stomach adenocarcinoma, liver hepatocellular carcinoma, and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. METHODS: After screening differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs in 4 digestive cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, the prognostic significance of the above differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Target genes of the corresponding differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs were predicted by StarBase. We performed bioinformatics methods, including gene ontology annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis, to explore the role and molecular mechanisms of differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs and predicted target genes in tumor progression. RESULTS: A total of 4 differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs (AC093895.1, CASC9, LINC01980, and HOXC-AS2) with a significant prognostic value were identified. Moreover, 6 target genes were obtained. Also, functional enrichment analysis showed that these 4 DELs were mainly related to the regulation of mRNA metabolic process, regulation of RNA stability, mRNA binding, RNA localization, and spliceosome. CONCLUSION: The prognostic differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs and target genes in the digestive cancers were obtained, which may provide a novel direction for treatment and prognosis improvement of digestive cancers.