Upregulation of long noncoding RNA SPRY4‐IT1 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in cervical cancer

The identification of cancer‐associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is critical for us to understand cancer pathogenesis and development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression profile of the lncRNA SPRY4‐IT1 in cervical cancer and to identify its clinical significance in cancer progression. The expression levels of SPRY4‐IT1 in cervical cancer tissues were measured by quantitative real‐time PCR, and its correlation with overall survival of cervical cancer patients was analyzed statistically. Our results showed that the expression levels of SPRY4‐IT1 were higher in cervical cancer tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. Patients with higher SPRY4‐IT1 expression had advanced clinical characteristics and a shorter overall survival time than those with lower SPRY4‐IT1 expression. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that relative SPRY4‐IT1 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival in patients with cervical cancer. In addition, the model we have established shows a good prediction of the probability of 5‐year overall survival of patients according to the c‐index and calibration curve. Collectively, our data suggest that lncRNA SPRY4‐IT1 may be a novel molecule involved in cervical cancer progression, which may be of use as both a potential predictor and therapeutic target.