Genetic Variants of lncRNA Are Associated with the Clinicopathologic Development of Oral Cancer.

The long noncoding RNA, Growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) plays a crucial role in the development of oral cancer. However, potential genetic variants in that affect the susceptibility and progression of oral cancer have rarely been explored. In this study, two loci of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs145204276 and rs55829688) were genotyped by using the TaqMan allelic discrimination in 1125 oral cancer patients and 1195 non-oral-cancer individuals. After statistical analyses, the distribution of both the SNP rs145204276 and SNP rs55829688 frequencies were similar between the study and control groups. However, the patients with SNP rs145204276 variants (Ins/Del or Del/Del) showed a higher tendency of moderate to poor cell differentiation of oral cancer (OR: 1.454, 95% CI: 1.041-2.031, = 0.028). Moreover, the SNP rs145204276 variants (Ins/Del or Del/Del) in the non-alcohol-drinking population were associated with significantly advanced tumor stage (OR: 1.500, 95% CI: 1.081-2.081, = 0.015) and larger tumor size (OR: 1.494, 95% CI: 1.076-2.074, = 0.016). Furthermore, individuals with the SNP rs145204276 variant were associated with a higher expression of GAS5 in the GTEx database ( = 0.002), and the higher GAS5 level was associated with poor cell differentiation, advanced tumor stage and larger tumor size in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma from the TCGA database (all < 0.05). In conclusion, the SNP rs145204276 variant is related to poor-differentiation cell status in oral cancer. Besides, the presence of the SNP rs145204276 variant is associated with a worse tumor stage and tumor size in oral cancer patients without alcohol drinking.