Upregulation of long non-coding RNALOC284454may serve as a new serum diagnostic biomarker for head and neck cancers

Background Identification of effective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of cancer is necessary for improving precision medicine. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important regulatory role in tumor initiation and progression. The lncRNALOC284454is distinctly expressed in various head and neck cancers (HNCs), as demonstrated by our previous bioinformatics analysis. However, the expression levels and functions ofLOC284454in cancer are still unclear. Methods We investigated the dysregulation of lncRNAs in HNCs using the GEO database and found thatLOC284454was highly expressed in HNCs. Serum samples from 212 patients with HNCs and 121 normal controls were included in this biomarker study. We measured the expression ofLOC284454in the sera of HNC patients and normal controls using RT-qPCR. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis is an important statistical method that is widely used in clinical diagnosis and disease screening. ROC was used to analyze the clinical value ofLOC284454in the early diagnosis of HNCs. Results LOC284454was significantly upregulated in the sera of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, oral cancer, and thyroid cancer.LOC284454upregulation had good clinical diagnostic value in these cancers, as evaluated by area under the ROC curve values of 0.931, 0.698, and 0.834, respectively. Conclusions LOC284454may be a valuable serum biomarker for HNCs facilitating the early diagnosis of malignant cancers. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the involvement ofLOC284454in HNCs. This study provides the first evidence thatLOC284454may be a serum biomarker for HNCs.