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Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as vital players in tumor biology with potential value in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics. The lncRNA HULC (highly up-regulated in liver cancer) is increased in many malignancies, yet its serum expression profile and clinical value in gastric cancer (GC) patients remain unclear. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) for large-scale analysis of the serum expression of HULC in GC patients reliably detected circulating HULC and revealed that it is upregulated in GC patients. A high serum HULC level correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis stage, and H. pylori infection. The area under the ROC curve for HULC was up to 0.888, which was higher than that for CEA (0.694) and CA72-4 (0.514). Follow-up detection and Kaplan-Meier curve analysis revealed HULC is a good predictor of GC prognosis. Our present study indicates that circulating HULC may represent a novel serum tumor marker for early diagnosis and monitoring progression and prognosis of GC.

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Early evidence indicates that the long non-coding RNA CCAL plays a critical role in cancer progression and metastasis. However, the overall biological role and clinical significance of CCAL in gastric tumourigenesis and progression remain largely unknown. We observed that CCAL was upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and was associated with the tumour-node-metastasis stage. Functional experiments showed that CCAL promoted gastric cancer cell proliferation and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Luciferase reporter assay indicated that CCAL directly bind to miR-149. Moreover, knockdown of CCAL significantly reduced the expression of FOXM1, a direct target of miR-149. We also showed that FOXM1 suppression by miR-149 could be partially rescued by CCAL overexpression. In addition, we identified a negative correlation between the mRNA expression of CCAL and miR-149 in gastric cancer tissues. Furthermore, we observed a negative correlation between the expression of miR-149 and FOXM1 and a positive correlation between CCAL and FOXM1 levels. These results demonstrated that the CCAL/miR-149/FOXM1 axis functions as a key regulator in gastric cancer metastasis and CCAL potentially represents a biomarker for diagnosis and potential target for therapy in the future.