Downregulation of long non-coding RNA HCG11 predicts a poor prognosis in prostate cancer.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) have been reported as key regulators in the progression and metastasis of prostate cancer (PCa). In this study, we found that the expression levels of HCG11 in PCa tissues were significantly lower than those in non-tumor tissues in publically available databases and in human PCa samples. Our results showed the expression levels of HCG11 in patients with PCa were associated with the age, Lymph Node Status (LN status), preoperative PSA level, Gleason score, and biochemical recurrence (BCR). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that downregulation of HCG11 expression in tissues was associated with poor survival of PCa patients. GO and KEGG pathway analysis were applied to explore the potential roles of HCG11. Moreover, a HCG11 mediated ceRNA network was built using co-expression relationships of the differentially expressed mRNAs and miRNAs. We believed that this study will provide a potential new therapeutic and prognostic target for prostate cancer.