Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to be a critical role in
cancer progression and prognosis. However, little is known about the pathological role of
lncRNA HOXA transcript at the distal tip (HOTTIP) in tongue
squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) patients. The aim of this study is to measure the expression of
lncRNA HOTTIP in TSCC patients and to explore the clinical significance of the
lncRNA HOTTIP. The expression of
lncRNA HOTTIP was measured in 86 TSCC tissues and 14 adjacent non-malignant tissues using qRT-PCR. In our study, results indicated that
lncRNA HOTTIP was highly expressed in TSCC compared with adjacent non-malignant tissues (P < 0.001) and positively correlated with T stage (T1-2 vs. T3-4, P = 0.023), clinical stage (I-II stages
vs. III-IV stages, P = 0.018), and distant
metastasis (absent vs. present, P = 0.031) in TSCC patients. Furthermore, we also found that
lncRNA HOTTIP overexpression was an unfavorable prognostic factor in TSCC patients (P < 0.001), regardless of T stage, distant
metastasis, and clinical stage. Finally, overexpression of
lncRNA HOTTIP was supposed to be an independent poor prognostic factor for TSCC patients through multivariate analysis (P = 0.023). In conclusion, increased
lncRNA HOTTIP expression may be serve as an unfavorable prognosis predictor for TSCC patients. Nevertheless, further investigation with a larger sample size is needed to support our results.