Accumulating evidence suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can function as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) to interact with other
RNA transcripts and ceRNAs perturbation play important roles in
cancer initiation and progression including pancreatic
adenocarcinoma (PAAD). In this study, we constructed a PAAD-specific hallmark gene-related
ceRNA network (HceNet) using paired genome-wide expression profiles of
mRNA,
lncRNA and
miRNA and regulatory relationships between them. Based on "
ceRNA hypothesis", we analyzed the characteristics of HceNet and identified a
ceRNA module comprising of 29 genes (12 lncRNAs, two
miRNAs and 15 mRNAs) as potential prognostic
biomarkers related to overall survival of patients with PAAD. The prognostic value of
ceRNA module
biomarkers was further validated in the train (Hazard Ratio (HR) =1.661, 95% CI: 1.275-2.165, p<1.00e-4), test (HR=1.546, 95% CI: 1.238-1.930, p<1.00e-4), and entire (HR=1.559, 95% CI: 1.321-1.839, p<1.00e-4) datasets. Our study provides candidate prognostic
biomarkers for PAAD and increases our understanding of
ceRNA-related regulatory mechanism in PAAD pathogenesis.