Over Expression of Long Non-Coding RNA HULC in Women with Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in East Azerbaijan Province

 Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, breast cancer still remains the second leading cause of cancer- related death in women. Recent reports have detected a new class of non-coding molecules named long non-coding RNAs that play an important role in various biological processes involved in cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the expression level of long non-coding RNA HULC in breast cancer.

 In this experimental study, after collecting 40 breast tumors with invasive ductal carcinoma and 40 normal marginal tissues, RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were done. The expression level of HULC was obtained by using the qRT-PCR method. REST 2009 software was employed to evaluate the association of its expression in tumor and normal tissues. Biomarker potential of HULC was evaluated by drawing ROC curve. Relationship between HULC expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed.

 Results from REST indicated significant upregulation of HULC in tumor tissues compared to normal marginal specimens (95% CI; p=0.0001). ROC curve analysis also demonstrated the biomarker potential of HULC in breast cancer (ROCAUC=0.79; p<0.0001). Evaluation of the relationship between HULC expression and clinicopathological features revealed that there is a statistically significant positive correlation of HULC expression with advanced stages (95% CI; P=0.019).

 Considering the upregulation of HULC expression in invasive ductal carcinoma, this lncRNA could be considered as a new potential diagnostic biomarker in breast cancer.