Expression and clinical significance of lncRNA-SChLAP1 in breast cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-SChLAP1 in breast cancer (BCa) tissues and its clinical significance in the progression of this cancer.

Methods: 100 pairs of surgically resected BCa tissue samples and normal breast tissues were collected from BCa patients, and SChLAP1 expression in above tissues was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Meanwhile, the receiver operating curve (ROC) was plotted to analyze the efficacy of SChLAP1 in the diagnosis of BCa. In addition, the interplay between SChLAP1 expression and clinical features as well as the pathological features of BCa patients was analyzed.

Results: The expression level of SChLAP1 in BCa tissue samples was remarkably higher than that in normal ones. When the area under the ROC curve (AUC)=0.8639 and p<0.001, BCa could be diagnosed by SChLAP1; meanwhile, when the cut-off value was 3.26, the sensitivity was 80% and the specificity was 72%. Moreover, it was uncovered that the SChLAP1 expression was associated with patients' menarche, menopause, age of first pregnancy, or whether breastfeeding is administrated and whether oral contraceptives is taken; in addition, alcohol consumption, body mass index or tumor size and clinical stage were also the factors affecting the expression of SChLAP1.

Conclusions: SChLAP1 is highly expressed in BCa tissues and can serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of this cancer.