Down-regulation of long non-coding RNA MEG3 indicates an unfavorable prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer: Evidence from the GEO database

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) MEG3 (maternally expressed gene 3) is an imprinted gene that suppresses cells growth in various tumors. However, the association between MEG3 expression and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been fully investigated. Seven datasets with 1144 patients were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 platform). Association between MEG3 and other variables was tested using the chi-squared test. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was carried out to explore the association between MEG3 expression and overall survival (OS)/progression free survival (PFS). Results of univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were represented in HR and 95%CI form. Summarized results and publication bias were showed by forest plots and funnel plots respectively. Differential expression of MEG3 was related to stage (GSE31210OS and GSE31210PFS), histology (GSE29013OS and GSE29013PFS) and gender (GSE29013PFS). In summary, low MEG3 expression was associated with shorter long-term survival time in several datasets (GSE3141 (p = 0.039), GSE30219 (p = 0.008) for OS and GSE30219 (p = 0.048) for PFS). We found that MEG3 was an independent prognostic factor in GSE30219 for PFS (HR 0.666, 95%CI 0.458-0.969, p = 0.033). The summarized results suggested that low MEG3 expression was a poor prognostic factor in NSCLC (HR = 0.77, 95%CI 0.63-0.95). Specifically, the association between low MEG3 expression and poor prognosis was markedly significant in younger patients (≤ 60 years old) (HR0.602, 95%CI 0.417-0.867, p = 0.007). These findings indicate that MEG3 could be a novel prognostic factor for NSCLC patients.