Expression of lncRNA DLX6-AS1 in patients with hepatic carcinoma and its prognostic value

Hepatic carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide, and the prognosis of HCC patients is often poor. Long-chain non-coding RNA (lncRNA) distal-less homeobox 6 antisense 1 (DLX6-AS1) has been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of various cancers. This study aims to investigate the expression of DLX6-AS1 in HCC patients and its prognostic value. The serum DLX6-AS1 was quantified using a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay in both HCC patients and healthy individuals, and the correlation of DLX6-AS1 with clinicopathological features of HCC patients, as well as the diagnostic and prognostic value of DLX6-AS1 for HCC patients, were analyzed. The results showed that the expression of serum DLX6-AS1 in HCC patients was significantly higher than that of healthy individuals (P < 0.05), and DLX6-AS1 was related to tumor differentiation, pathological staging, and lymph node metastasis (all P < 0.05). Patients with high DLX6-AS1 expression showed significantly higher mortality than those with low DLX6-AS1 expression, and the DLX6-AS1 expression in dead patients was significantly higher than that in living patients. Furthermore, the AUC of DLX6-AS1 for poor prognosis of HCC patients was larger than 0.8. The univariate analysis revealed that the poor prognosis of HCC patients was related to pathological staging, lymph node metastasis, differentiation, and DLX6-AS1 expression (all P < 0.05), and the Cox multivariate analysis revealed that pathological staging, lymph node metastasis, differentiation, and DLX6-AS1 expression were independent risk factors for poor prognosis of HCC patients (all P < 0.05). These findings suggest that DLX6-AS1 may be a promising target for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis prediction of HCC patients.