Long noncoding RNA FTX is associated with prognosis of glioma patients.

Background: Long noncoding RNAs play influential roles in the progression of many types of human malignancies. The present study aimed to explore the prognostic value of long noncoding RNA FTX (FTX) on patients with glioma.

Methods: FTX expression in glioma specimens and matched adjacent non-neoplasm specimens was examined by a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. Furthermore, assays of the relationships between FTX expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with glioma were also performed. Kaplan-Meier methods were applied for the assays of the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients and Cox regression assays were used to analyze the clinical value of FTX used as a possible biomarker.

Results: FTX levels were significantly up-regulated in glioma specimens compared to the paired non-neoplasm specimens (p < 0.01). Furthermore, high FTX expression in neoplasm tissues was dramatically associated with World Health Organization grade (p = 0.001) and Karnofsky Performance Score (p = 0.009). Kaplan-Meier assays with 187 patients revealed that patients with high level of FTX expression displayed poorer OS (p = 0.002) and PFS (p = 0.000). Subsequently, multivariable Cox regression analysis identified FTX expression as an independent prognostic factor of unfavorable survivals in glioma (OS: p = 0.001; PFS: p = 0.002).

Conclusions: These findings indicated that FTX may be a novel predictor for prognostic assessment of glioma patients. However, studies conducted with larger numbers of patients are essential to confirm our findings.