Up-regulation of long non-coding RNA-PCAT-1 promotes invasion and metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Long non-coding RNA prostate cancer associated transcript-1 ncRNA (lncRNA-PCAT-1) plays an important role in the progression of prostate cancer. The present investigation was aimed to evaluate the potential roles of the lncRNA-PCAT-1 gene expression changes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) between Iranian population. In the case-control investigation, we have analyzed a total of 150 fresh tissue samples, compromising of 75 cancerous tissues and 75 adjacent normal tissues from patients with ESCC. We used quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to evaluate the lncRNA-PCAT-1 gene expression levels in ESCC patients and correlation between the lncRNA-PCAT-1 expression changes and clinical characteristics. Our findings showed that the lncRNA-PCAT-1 gene was up-regulated in cancerous tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues (p=0.0016). In addition, the results revealed a significant correlation between up-regulating of lncRNA-PCAT-1 and hot liquid drinking (p =0.017). These findings offer the potential roles of lncRNA-PCAT-1 in the pathogenesis of ESCC and may consider as a candidate prognostic biomarker for ESCC in an Iranian population.