Through survival analysis, 5 lncRNAs (AL117190.1, COL4A2-AS1, LINC00184, MEG3 and MIR22HG) were identified as crucial prognostic factors for patients with breast cancer.
However, subgroup analysis according to cancer type revealed that MEG3 expression was not associated with better OS in gastrointestinal cancer (HR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.33-1.03; p = 0.06), and patients with breast cancer (HR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.12-5.88; p = 0.87).
Following data mining in multiple big data databases, we confirmed a positive correlation between MEG3 and heparan sulfate proteoglycan 2 (HSPG2) expression in breast cancer tissues.
Collectively, these results suggest that MEG3 might suppress the tumor growth and angiogenesis via AKT signaling pathway and MEG3 may serve as a potential novel diagnostic and therapeutic target of breast cancer.
Moreover, multivariate Cox analysis revealed MEG3 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year OS (p = 0.003) and 5-year PFS (p = 0.002) in BC patients.
Taken together, our findings indicate that MEG3 is downregulated in breast cancer tissues and affects breast cancer cells' malignant behaviors, which indicate MEG3 a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer.