Development of a novel six-long non-coding RNA signature predicting survival of patients with bladder urothelial carcinoma

Bladder urothelial carcinoma is a malignant tumor with a high incidence in the uropoietic system. Considerable studies have shown that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in the development and progression of bladder urothelial carcinoma. In this study, the lncRNA expression and clinical data of 377 bladder urothelial carcinoma patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and differentially expressed lncRNAs in the cancer and normal groups were evaluated. Univariate COX and multivariate COX regression analyses of prognosis were performed on differentially expressed lncRNAs in the training datasets, six prognosis-related lncRNAs (LINC02195, LINC01484, LINC01468, SMC2-AS1, AC011298.1, and PTPRD-AS1) were assessed, and a 6-lncRNA signature was constructed. The predictive capability of this 6-lncRNA signature was validated in the testing datasets and entire datasets. The prognostic ability of 6-lncRNA signature was independent of other clinical elements after multivariate COX regression and stratified analyses of with other clinical elements. We performed functional enrichment analysis with the six prognosis-related lncRNAs. Results of functional enrichment revealed that these prognosis-related lncRNAs might promote the development and metastasis of bladder urothelial carcinoma. In summary, the 6-lncRNA signature that we developed could effectively predict the prognosis of bladder urothelial carcinoma patients. This 6-lncRNA signature might be a novel independent prognostic marker of bladder urothelial carcinoma. Moreover，it also provides novel insights into the mechanism of bladder urothelial carcinoma.