Upregulation of long intergenic noncoding RNA LINC00092 indicates favorable survival in lung adenocarcinoma via tumor growth inhibition

Background Long intergenic noncoding RNA 00092 (LINC00092) is a recently identified novel RNA that acts on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) to drive the progression of ovarian cancer. Because CAFs also play a vital role in lung cancer, we hypothesized that LINC00092 is associated with lung cancer.Methods The expression level of LINC00092 was examined in 93 cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor tissues and adjacent normal lung tissues, and its clinical effect on prognosis was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test and Cox regression analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. The effect of LINC00092 on tumor growth was further assessed in vitro .Results LINC00092 was significantly downregulated in 76.3% (71/93) of lung cancer tissues compared to that in their normal counterparts ( P < 0.001), and high expression of LINC00092 led to a better prognosis with increased survival time (1632 days vs. 1171 days; P = 0.087) and decreased mortality (hazard rate, HR = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.51-1.05) than low expression in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) but not in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) patients. Additionally, upregulation of LINC00092 inhibited LUAD cell proliferation and tumorigenic ability in vitro .Conclusions LINC00092 is an indicator of favorable LUAD prognosis. Targeted molecular therapy directed at LINC00092 upregulation may be a valuable strategy to fight LUAD.