Overexpression of lncRNA PANDAR predicts adverse prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Abundant studies have shown that lncRNA PANDAR plays an oncogenic role in human solid tumors. Although abnormal expression of PANDAR has been well investigated in solid tumors, it was rarely studied in hematologic diseases. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the PANDAR expression level and its clinical significance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). MATERIALS AND METHODS: For detecting the expression level of PANDAR in 119 AML patients and 26 controls, real-time quantitative PCR was used in this study. The prognostic values were evaluated by using Kaplan–Meier analysis, Cox regression analyses, and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: PANDAR was significantly overexpressed in AML and might be a promising biomarker which could distinguish AML from normal samples (P<0.001). Patients with high expression of PANDAR (PANDAR(high)) were older and showed higher bone marrow blasts than patients in PANDAR(low) group (P=0.029 and 0.032, respectively). Significant differences between these groups were also detected regarding risk group and karyotype finding (P=0.009 and 0.041, respectively). Importantly, PANDAR(high) patients presented a significant lower complete remission rate compared to PANDAR(low) patients (P<0.001). Furthermore, Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that PANDAR(high) patients had shorter overall survival compared to PANDAR(low) patients observing the whole AML cohort, and also in the non-M3 group of patients (P<0.001 and P=0.005, respectively). Multivariate analysis of Cox and logistic regression analysis confirmed that high PANDAR expression was an independent unfavorable risk factor for overall survival and complete remission in both observed patient groups. CONCLUSION: These results revealed that PANDAR was overexpressed in AML, and that higher PANDAR expression was associated with poor clinical outcome. Our study therefore suggests that PANDAR expression is a promising biomarker for prognostic prediction for AML.