Background
As either oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have a major role in both tumorigenesis and progression of human cancers, including breast cancer (BC). However, the statistical correlation between the lncRNA-lncRNA interaction and prognosis of BC remains unclear.
Methods
We analyzed the fragments per kilobase per million (FPKM) lncRNA expression data in tumor tissue samples from 890 female patients with BC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) between May 2021 and October 2022. The Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age, race, clinical stage, neoadjuvant therapy, estrogen receptor (ER), and progesterone receptor (PR) was adopted to evaluate the lncRNA-lncRNA interaction regarding overall survival (OS) of BC. The multiple comparison was corrected by Bonferroni method.
Results
RP11-10E18.7×RP11-481C4.2
was significantly associated with OS of BC patients [hazard ratio (HR)
interaction
=1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.06, P=3.35×10
−9
]. Then, gene-gene interaction analysis was performed for genes co-expressed with lncRNAs.
FOXA1×U2SURP
(HR
interaction
=1.49, 95% CI: 1.28–1.73, P=2.16×10
−7
) was found to have a similar interactive pattern to
RP11-10E18.7×RP11-481C4.2
. after classifying the patients by intersection (3.47), we observed that the effect of FOXA1 opposite in patients with different U2SURP expression level (HR
high
vs
. low
=0.58, 95% CI: 0.34–0.99, P=0.046 in low expression of U2SURP; HR
high
vs
. low
=1.56, 95% CI: 1.18–2.87, P=0.029 in high expression of U2SURP).
Conclusions
Our comprehensive study identified
RP11-10E18.7×RP11-481C4.2
as a potential biomarker of BC prognosis. The results play an essential role in the impact of lncRNA-lncRNA interaction on BC survival. Our findings elucidated potential molecular mechanisms of BC progression under complex association patterns and provided potential dynamic and reversible therapeutic targets for BC patients.