Long noncoding RNA SPRY4-IT1 is a prognostic factor for poor overall survival and has an oncogenic role in glioma.

OBJECTIVE: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as biomarkers and as important regulators of the biological processes and tumorigenesis in cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of lncRNA SPRY4-IT1 in glioma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The expression level of SPRY4-IT1 was examined by the quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in glioma tissues and control tissues and its association with overall survival of patients was analyzed by statistical analysis. Survival curves were made using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank test was used to analyze the differences between clinicopathological characteristics and survival in glioma patients.

RESULTS: The expression level of SPRY4-IT1 was significantly higher in glioma in comparison to normal matched tissue (p < 0.01). Furthermore, lncRNA SPRY4-IT1 was associated significantly with WHO grade (p = 0.009) and tumor size (p = 0.003). A significant difference was found that glioma patients with high SPRY4-IT1 expression level had distinctly shorter OS than patients with low SPRY4-IT1 expression level. Furthermore, Multivariate analysis indicated SPRY4-IT1 as an independent prognostic indicator for glioma patients (p = 0.003), CONCLUSIONS: The lncRNA SPRY4-IT1 may be a potential prognostic bio¬marker of glioma.