Objective To investigate the correlation between the expression of long non-coding RNA anti-differentiation non-coding RNA (lncRNA ANCR) and clinicopathological characteristics in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues.

Methods A total of 115 patients pathologically diagnosed as nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the hospital from June 2015 to June 2019 were randomly included as research objects, and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression level of lncRNA ANCR in tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Correlations of lncRNA ANCR expression with gender, age, pathological type, maximum diameter, differentiation grade, clinical stage, and lymph node metastasis were analyzed. Patients were followed up for 60 months to record tumor progression and overall survival.

Results The expression level of lncRNA ANCR in tumor tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001). Patients with a maximum diameter ≥3 cm, low differentiation, stage Ⅲ to Ⅳ, and positive lymph node metastasis had significantly higher lncRNA ANCR expression level in tumor tissues than those with a maximum diameter<3 cm, moderate-to-high differentiation, stage Ⅰ to Ⅱ, and negative lymph node metastasis (P<0.001). Patients with tumor progression and death outcome had significantly higher lncRNA ANCR expression level in tumor tissues than those without tumor progression and survival outcome (P<0.001). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that a maximum diameter ≥3 cm, stage Ⅲ to Ⅳ, positive lymph node metastasis, and lncRNA ANCR expression were significantly related to tumor progression, while stage Ⅲ to Ⅳ and lncRNA ANCR expression were significantly related to death (P<0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the areas under the curve (AUC) for predicting tumor progression and death based on lncRNA ANCR expression level in tumor tissues were 0.899 and 0.842, respectively (P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the 5-year survival rate in the high lncRNA ANCR expression group was significantly lower than that in the low lncRNA ANCR expression group in tumor tissues (P<0.01).

Conclusion High expression of lncRNA ANCR in tumor tissues may be involved in the malignant progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and is closely related to clinical prognosis.