Identification of Long Noncoding RNA MIR22HG as a Novel Biomarker in Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the one of the most common endocrine malignancy. However, currently there are no specific and sensitive biomarkers for predicting the prognosis for TC. In this study, we for the first time showed MIR22HG was down-regulated in thyroid cancer by analyzing public datasets, including TCGA, GSE29265, GSE33630, and GSE55091. Furthermore, we observed the lower expression levels of MIR22HG were significantly related to higher age, lymph node metastasis status, residual tumor status, N stage, Grade, and T stage in TC. We also observed higher MIR22HG expression was associated with longer overall and disease-free survival time in TC. In order to explore the potential mechanisms of MIR22HG regulating TC progression, 4 hub gene networks regulated by MIR22HG were constructed in the present study. Bioinformatics analysis showed MIR22HG was associated with apoptotic process, regulation of transcription, mRNA splicing, regulation of cell cycle, and Hippo signaling pathway in TC. These results suggested MIR22HG could serve as a novel biomarker for thyroid cancer.