Long non-coding RNA H19 may be a marker for prediction of prognosis in the follow-up of patients with papillary thyroid cancer

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic values of long non-coding RNA H19 (H19) in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS: This retrospective, nonrandomised study included 410 patients with PTC and 89 patients with benign thyroid nodes (BTN)who underwent standard total thyroidectomy. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect H19 expression in these tissues. The relationship between H19 expression and the patients' clinicopathological factors, including histopathological characteristics of the tumour, diagnosis and prognosis was explored. RESULTS: Expression of H19 was lower in the PTC tissues (1.259 +/- 1.15) compared to the BNT tissues (2.8347 +/- 2.176) (p = 0.001). Low expression of H19 was associated with patient's age, tumor size, extrathyroid extension, pathological lateral node metastasis (pN1b), histological aggressive type and poorer disease-free survival (p < 0.0001). The sensitivity for distinguishing PTC from benign was 81.3%. H19 was found to be an independent risk factor for extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: H19 may serve as a potential predictor of poor prognoses in patients with PTC.