RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Long noncoding RNA DICER1-AS1 (DICER1-AS1) has been reported to be upregulated in osteosarcoma cells and to serve as a tumor promoter. However, the clinical significance of DICER1-AS1 in osteosarcoma remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of DICER1-AS1 expression with prognosis of osteosarcoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The expression of DICER1-AS1 was measured in 214 osteosarcoma samples and normal bone samples by using Real-time PCR. The correlations between DICER1-AS1 expression and clinical features were statistically analyzed. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were examined using Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate analyses were performed to analyze the prognostic significance of DICER1-AS1 expression. RESULTS: It was found that the expression levels of DICER1-AS1 in osteosarcoma tissues were significantly higher than those in corresponding noncancerous bone tissues (p < 0.01). Higher DICER1-AS1 had significant association with clinical stage (p = 0.005) and distant metastasis (p = 0.000). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high DICER1-AS1 expression had a shorter OS and DFS compared with the low DICER1-AS1 expression group (p = 0.007 and p < 0.0001). In a multivariate Cox model, our results showed that DICER1-AS1 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year OS (HR = 3.236, 95% CI: 1.148-5.347; p = 0.004) and 5-year DFS (HR = 3.935, 95% CI: 1.556-6.349; p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: DICER1-AS1 is up-regulated in osteosarcoma and may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for osteosarcoma.
