LINC0638 lncRNA is involved in the local recurrence of melanoma following surgical resection

Melanoma is a rare malignancy in China and the treatment outcomes are generally satisfactory. However, postoperative recurrence can be life-threatening. The current study aimed to investigate the involvement of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1638 (LINC01638) long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in the recurrence of melanoma. Expression of LINC01638 lncRNA in skin biopsies and plasma of patients with melanoma, patients with benign skin lesions and healthy controls was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Diagnostic values of LINC01638 lncRNA for melanoma were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The association between LINC01638 lncRNA and clinicopathological data of patients with melanoma was analyzed by χ(2) test. All patients were followed up for five years to record recurrence. LINC01638 lncRNA expression vectors and shRNAs were transfected into human melanoma cell lines and the effects of LINC01638 lncRNA overexpression and knockdown on cell proliferation were analyzed by cell counting kit-8 assay. LINC01638 lncRNA was significantly upregulated in patients with melanoma compared with the other two groups of patients, and upregulation of LINC01638 lncRNA distinguished patients with melanoma from patients with benign skin lesions and healthy controls. LINC01638 lncRNA expression was significantly associated with tumor size but not with other patient clinical data. Plasma levels of LINC01638 lncRNA were further increased during follow-up in patients with local recurrence but not in patients without recurrence. LINC01638 lncRNA overexpression promoted, while knockdown inhibited proliferation of cells of melanoma cell lines, C32 and SK-MEL-28, in vitro. The upregulation of LINC01638 lncRNA was likely associated with the local recurrence of melanoma following surgical resection.