Serum lncRNA LOXL1‐AS1 is a diagnostic and prognostic marker for epithelial ovarian cancer

Background The present study aimed to examine the levels of circulating LOXL1‐AS1 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and to analyze its diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods The levels of LOXL1‐AS1 in 185 EOC patients and 43 healthy volunteers were evaluated by a quantitative reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction. The potential of LOXL1‐AS1 as a biomarker for EOC diagnosis was determined by receiver‐operating characteristic (ROC) curve assays. The associations between clinicopathological parameters and LOXL1‐AS1 expression were analyzed using a chi‐squared test. The influence of LOXL1‐AS1 on overall survival was analyzed by the use of Kaplan–Meier. A Cox proportional hazards assays were conducted for the determination of the prognostic value of LOXL1‐AS1. Results The expression of LOXL1‐AS1 was dramatically higher in EOC patients compared to healthy controls (p < 0.01). LOXL1‐AS1 yielded an area under the ROC curve of 0.843 with 65.3% sensitivity and 68.2% specificity in discriminating high‐grade EOC from healthy controls. It was also shown that LOXL1‐AS1 expression was associated with advanced FIGO stage (p = 0.004) and positively distant metastasis (p = 0.013). Kaplan–Meier assays revealed that patients with high LOXL1‐AS1 expression had a shorter overall survival than those with low expression (p = 0.0006). By performing multivariate assays, LOXL1‐AS1 was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for predicting the prognosis of EOC patients. Conclusions We provide evidence indicating that LOXL1‐AS1 expression is correlated with a poor clinical outcome in EOC patients and may act as an independent prognostic indicator, as well as a new diagnostic biomarker.