Background Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been recently implicated as having oncogenic and tumour suppressor roles. LncRNA LOC285194 (LOC285194) expression was significantly reduced in a variety of tumour tissues and cell lines, which promotes cell proliferation and migration. The aim of the present study is to examine the expression pattern of LOC285194 and its clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after curative liver resection.

Materials and methods We examined the expression of LOC285194 in 120 HCC samples and controls from adjacent non-tumour tissues using real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and analysed its correlation with clinical parameters and prognosis in these patients who have undergone curative hepatic resection with a median follow-up of 3.5 years.

Results The expression level of LOC285194 was significantly lower in tumour tissues and four liver cancer cell lines compared with adjacent normal tissues and normal liver cell line. Furthermore, a low expression of LOC285194 was significantly correlated with advanced tumour stage, microvascular invasion, tumour number and differentiation. Additionally, survival analysis showed that patients with low LOC285194 expression had a significantly worse overall and disease-free survival. Moreover, univariate and multivariate analyses showed that decreased expression of LOC285194 was an independent predictor of long-term survival.

Conclusions The low expression level of LOC285194 might be a novel candidate biomarker for predicting tumour progression and poor prognosis in HCC patients who have undergone hepatectomy and might be a potential target for gene therapy.