Expression of long noncoding RNA NBAT1 is associated with the outcome of patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Long noncoding RNA neuroblastoma-associated transcript 1 (NBAT1) has been reported to be involved in cancer progression. However, the clinical significance of NBAT1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still unclear. Our present research aimed to explore whether NBAT1 serves as a biomarker for NSCLC prognosis. METHODS: The expression of NBAT1 was examined by RT-PCR in tissue samples of 162 NSCLC patients and was compared with the adjacent non-tumor lung specimens. Then the association between NBAT1 expression and clinical-pathological parameters was further evaluated. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The prognostic significance of NBAT1 expression in NSCLC patients was explored by the use of univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: NBAT1 expression was prominently decreased in NSCLC tissues compared with matched normal lung specimens (p < 0.01). Moreover, survival analyses indicated that patients with low expression displayed dramatically decreased 5-year overall survival (p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: NBAT1 expression might contribute to tumor progression and poor prognosis of NSCLC and might be a new therapeutic target in NSCLC.