Expression and Prognostic Significance of lncRNA MALAT1 in Pancreatic Cancer Tissues

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been recently observed in various human cancers.However, the role of lncRNAs in pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclarified. The aim of thisstudy was to detect the expression of lncRNA MALAT1 in PDAC formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE)tissues and to investigate the clinical significance of the MALAT1 level.
Methods: The expression of MALAT1was examined in 45 PDAC and 25 adjacent non-cancerous FFPE tissues, as well as in five PDAC cell lines anda normal pancreatic epithelium cell line HPDE6c-7, using qRT-PCR. The relationship between MALAT1 leveland clinicopathological parameters of PDAC was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportionalhazards model.
Results: The relative level of MALAT1 was significantly higher in PDAC compared to the adjacentnormal pancreatic tissues (p=0.009). When comparing the MALAT1 level in the cultured cell lines, remarkablyhigher expression of MALAT1 was found in aspc-1 PDAC cells compared with the immortal pancreatic ductepithelial cell line HPDE6c-7 (q=7.573, p<0.05). Furthermore, MALAT1 expression level showed significantcorrelation with tumor size (r=0.35, p=0.018), tumor stage (r=0.439, p=0.003) and depth of invasion (r=0.334,p=0.025). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with higher MALAT1 expression had a poorer diseasefree survival (p=0.043). Additionally, multivariate analysis indicated that overexpression of MALAT1, as wellas the tumor location and nerve invasion, was an independent predictor of disease-specific survival of PDAC.
Conclusion: MALAT1 might be considered as a potential prognostic indicator and may be a target for diagnosisand gene therapy for PDAC.