Long noncoding RNA SNHG15, a potential prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of lncRNA SNHG15 and its prognostic value in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Expression levels of lncRNA SNHG15 in 152 pairs of HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Associations between clinicopathological parameters and lncRNA SNHG15 expression were evaluated using chi-square tests. The overall survival was analyzed by log-rank test, and survival curves were plotted according to Kaplan-Meier. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to determine whether lncRNA SNHG15 was an independent predictor of survival. RESULTS The lncRNA SNHG15 expression was significantly upregulated in tumor tissues compared with that in adjacent non-tumor tissues (p < 0.01). It is also proved that lncRNA SNHG15 expression was associated with histological grade (p = 0.000), TNM stage (p = 0.015), and vein invasion (p = 0.000). In addition, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that increased LncRNA SNHG15 expression was associated with poor overall survival of patients (p = 0.0011). Moreover, the results of the multivariate analysis showed that high lncRNA SNHG15 expression was a significant independent predictor of poor survival in HCC (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that lncRNA SNHG15 may serve as an efficient clinical biomarker and a therapeutic target for HCC patients.