title: High Expression of HULC Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Osteosarcoma Patients.
abstract: Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary bone cancer in childhood. OS is an aggressive disease, and metastatic patients evolve with very poor clinical outcomes. Genetically, OSs are extremely complex tumors, and the related metastatic process is not well understood in terms of the biology of the disease. In this context, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as an important class of gene expression regulators that play key roles in the invasion and metastasis of several human tumors. Here, we evaluated the expression of HULC, which is an lncRNA that is associated with the tumor metastatic process, and assessed its potential role as a prognostic marker in OS. HULC expression was evaluated in primary OS samples using real-time RT-PCR. HULC expression status was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and its association with survival was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The HULC expression level was not significantly associated with the clinicopathological characteristics of the OS patients. However, our data demonstrated that higher levels of expression of HULC were associated with lower survival rates in OS patients, both in terms of overall and event-free survival. Elevated HULC expression was associated with poor clinical outcomes among the OS patients, which suggests that HULC could be a potential prognostic biomarker in OS.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Laboratory, Molecular Oncology Research Center, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vanessa Regina Maciel
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Uzan
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Laboratory, Molecular Oncology Research Center, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: André van Helvoort
authors.initials: Av
authors.lastname: Lengert
authors.affiliation: Barretos Children's Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Érica
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Boldrini
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Valter
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Penna
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Laboratory, Molecular Oncology Research Center, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.|Department of Pathology, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cristovam
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scapulatempo-Neto
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medicine School of Ribeirao Preto, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Scrideli
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alberto Paiva de Moraes
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Filho
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Barretos Children's Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carlos Eduardo Bezerra
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Cavalcante
authors.affiliation: Center for Research Support (NAP), Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cleyton Zanardo
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Barretos Children's Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Fernando
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Laboratory, Molecular Oncology Research Center, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniel Onofre
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2117-3640
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Vidal
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: C574685:HULC long non-coding RNA, human; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding