Evaluation of prognostic usefulness of long noncoding RNA GAS5 and FAL1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Genetic studies on cancers have revealed that lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 are overexpressed in some cancerous cells. The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the roles of lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 gene expression changes in the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). In a case‐control investigation, we recruited a total of 140 formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded tissues of PTC, including 70 cancerous and noncancerous tissues. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 level of gene expression in the two tissue groups. The association between the clinicopathological characteristics of patients and the expression level of lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 was evaluated. Our findings revealed that the level of expression in the lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 genes was significantly upregulated in thyroid cancerous tissues (P\u2009<\u20090.003 and P\u2009<\u20090.040, respectively). The expression of lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 revealed a significant association with tumor node metastasis staging (P\u2009<\u20090.042 and P\u2009<\u20090.001, respectively). It seems that the lncRNA‐GAS5 and lncRNA‐FAL1 genes play an oncogenic role in PTC. The two genes have a significant potential prognostic value and may likely be used as novel therapeutic targets for PTC patients in the future.