A three‐lncRNA expression signature associated with the prognosis of gastric cancer patients

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as essential players in gene regulation. An ever‐increasing number of lncRNAs has been found to be associated with the biogenesis and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). We aimed to develop an lncRNA signature with prognostic value for survival outcomes of GC. Using an lncRNA mining approach, we analyzed the lncRNA expression profiles of 492 GC patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), which consisted of the GSE62254 set (N = 300) and the GSE15459 set (N = 192). The associations between the lncRNAs’ expression and survival outcome were evaluated. A set of three lncRNAs (LINC01140, TGFB2‐OT1, and RP11‐347C12.10) was identified to significantly correlate with overall survival. These lncRNAs were then combined to form a single prognostic signature. Based on this three‐lncRNA expression signature, patients in the GSE62254 set were classified into high‐ and low‐risk subgroups with significantly different overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.93, P < 0.001) and disease‐free survival (HR = 1.91, P < 0.001). Good reproducibility for the prognostic value of this lncRNA signature was confirmed in the GSE15459 set. Further analysis showed that the prognostic value of this signature was independent of some clinical characteristics. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that high‐risk scores positively related to several molecular pathways of cancer metastasis. Our results suggest that this innovative lncRNA expression signature may be a useful biomarker for the prognosis of patients with GC based on bioinformatics analysis.