Long non-coding RNA LINC00346, LINC00578, LINC00673, LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9 are novel prognostic markers for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a devastating human disease with aggressive course and extremely poor prognosis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been studied to serve as a critical role in pancreatic development and progression. However, little is known about its expression pattern, biological function in PC. In our study, we measured the expression levels of six lncRNAs (LINC00346, LINC00578, LINC00673, LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9) in PC tissues and serums. The results showed that LINC00346, LINC00578, and LINC00673 were highly expressed, whereas LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9 were lowly expressed in PC tissues and serums, and their expression levels were correlated with clinical stages. Results from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of six lncRNAs was 0.7073, 0.7837, 0.6093, 0.6057, 0.5712, and 0.5983, respectively. Survival analysis indicated that patients with high expression of LINC00346, LINC00578, or LINC00673 had significantly lower survival rate, while patients with high expression of LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9 had significantly higher survival rate. In addition, we also found that silence of LINC00346, LINC00578 and LINC00673 inhibited PC cell proliferation, and silence of LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9 promoted PC cell proliferation. Therefore, we suggested that LINC00346, LINC00578, LINC00673, LINC00671, LINC00261, and SNHG9 may be novel prognostic markers for PC.