LncRNA-MALAT1 is a promising biomarker for prognostic evaluation of tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE: MALAT1 is recognized as an oncogenic lncRNA in various malignancies. Here, the authors aim to explore the association of MALAT1 expression and prognostic implication in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). METHODS: The tongue tissues of 128 tongue SCC cases satisfying strict follow-up criteria and 28 normal cases were subjected to qRT-PCR assay for monitoring MALAT1 expression. Chi-square test was applied to explore the correlation between MALAT1 expression and clinicopathological features of tongue SCC. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to calculate survival rates. Cox proportional hazard analysis was adopted to analyze the relationship between prognostic factors and patient survival. RESULTS: The expression of MALAT1 was upregulated in tongue SCC, compared to normal tongue tissues. The expression level of MALAT1 was correlated to differentiation and stage of tongue SCC, and high MALAT1 expression was associated with low disease-free survival and overall survival rates. Moreover, advanced tongue SCC patients with high MALAT1 level had lower disease-free survival and decreased overall survival rate than patients with low MALAT1 level. These results revealed that MALAT1 overexpression can be considered as a significant prognostic factor to independently predict the disease-free survival and overall survival rate of tongue SCC. CONCLUSIONS: The expression level of MALAT1 is closely related with progression of tongue SCC. Furthermore, MALAT1 can serve as an independent biomarker for prognostic evaluation of tongue SCC.