High expression of long noncoding RNA Sox2ot is associated with the aggressive progression and poor outcome of gastric cancer.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA Sox2ot (Sox2ot) in gastric cancer (GC) patients and its association with clinicopathologic parameters and the prognosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect Sox2ot expression in 155 GC tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues. The relationships between Sox2ot expression and the clinicopathological features of GC patients were analyzed. Furthermore, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazard analysis. RESULTS: Sox2ot expression levels were decreased in cancerous tissues compared to their corresponding non-cancerous controls (p < 0.01). Sox2ot expression was associated with T stage, distant metastasis and differentiation (p = 0.009, 0.034 and 0.001, respectively). In addition, patients with high Sox2ot expression tended to have poorer OS and DFS (p < 0.001, respectively). Finally, multivariate analysis showed Sox2ot expression was an independent prognostic factor for GC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that overexpressed Sox2ot was correlated with aggressive tumor behavior. Sox2ot may serve as a novel prognostic factor and a potential target to improve the long-term outcome of GC.