Upregulation of long noncoding RNA SPRY4-IT1 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in cervical cancer.

The identification of cancer-associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is critical for us to understand cancer pathogenesis and development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression profile of the lncRNA SPRY4-IT1 in cervical cancer and to identify its clinical significance in cancer progression. The expression levels of SPRY4-IT1 in cervical cancer tissues were measured by quantitative real-time PCR, and its correlation with overall survival of cervical cancer patients was analyzed statistically. Our results showed that the expression levels of SPRY4-IT1 were higher in cervical cancer tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. Patients with higher SPRY4-IT1 expression had advanced clinical characteristics and a shorter overall survival time than those with lower SPRY4-IT1 expression. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that relative SPRY4-IT1 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival in patients with cervical cancer. In addition, the model we have established shows a good prediction of the probability of 5-year overall survival of patients according to the c-index and calibration curve. Collectively, our data suggest that lncRNA SPRY4-IT1 may be a novel molecule involved in cervical cancer progression, which may be of use as both a potential predictor and therapeutic target.