Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-protein coding transcripts that has gained significant attention lately due to their important biological actions and potential involvement in cancer. Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease with poor prognosis, and our understanding of lncRNA's involvement in the malignancy is limited. To further our knowledge, we measured the expression of three lncRNAs, ASAP1-IT1, FAM215A, and LINC00472, in tumor samples, and analyzed their associations with disease characteristics and patient survival.

Two hundred sixty-six patients diagnosed with primary epithelial ovarian cancers were recruited for the study. Fresh-frozen tumor samples were obtained from the patients at tumor resection and analyzed by RT-qPCR for expression of ASAP1-IT1, FAM215A, and LINC00472. Associations of lncRNA expression with patient survival were determined using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

We observed high expression of ASAP1-IT1, FAM215A and LINC00472 more frequently in low grade tumors and early stage disease compared to high grade tumors and late stage disease, respectively. High expression of ASAP1-IT1 and FAM215A were associated with favorable overall survival, and the survival association with ASAP1-IT1 was independent of tumor grade and disease stage. Analyses of online data also demonstrated similar survival associations with ASAP1-IT1 and FAM215A, suggesting that these lncRNAs may be involved in ovarian cancer progression.

LncRNAs may play appreciable roles in ovarian cancer and more research is needed to elucidate their biological mechanisms and clinical implications in tumor characterization as well as disease prognosis and treatment.