Expression level of long noncoding RNA H19 in plasma of patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer and its clinical significance

Objective: This study was aimed to explore the expression level of long noncoding RNA H19 in the plasma of patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its clinical significance. Methods: A total of 66 NSCLC patients (case group) and 31 patients with benign lung disease (control group) admitted from February 2015 to February 2017 were included in this study. Real-time polymerase chain reaction assay was applied to examine the relative expression level of long noncoding RNA H19 in the plasma of the two groups. The relationship between H19 expression and clinical, pathological features was explored. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to evaluate the clinical value of plasma H19 as a tumor marker in the auxiliary diagnosis of NSCLC. Results: The relative expression levels of plasma H19 inpatients from NSCLC group and benign lung disease group were 5.62 +/- 2.02 (Delta Ct) and 7.74 +/- 2.75 (Delta Ct), respectively. The NSCLC group presented with significantly higher levels than that of the benign disease group (P < 0.05). According to the median of relative expression level of 5.54, the plasma H19 of NSCLC patients was classified into low expression group >= 5.54 (n = 34) and high expression group < 5.52 (n = 32). The relationship between the patients' clinical, pathological features, and the expression level of H19 was analyzed. The expression of H19 was not significantly correlated with the gender, age, clinical staging, tumor diameter, and pathological type of the patients (P-all > 0.05). With the serum H19 as a diagnosis reference, the diagnostic sensitivity of NSCLC was 67.74%, and the specificity was 63.08%. The area under the ROC curve was 0.73, and the diagnostic cutoff value was 6.62. Conclusion: Plasma level of H19 in NSCLC patients was significantly increased, which could be applied as a serological marker for the auxiliary diagnosis of NSCLC.