Identification of new nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) biomarkers is of great 
clinical value for the diagnosis and treatment of NPC. HOTAIR, a cancer-related 
long non-coding RNA, was tested and its prognostic value for NPC was evaluated. 
As determined using in situ hybridization (ISH), 91 of 160 (56.87%) 
paraffin-embedded NPC biopsies showed high expression levels of HOTAIR (staining 
index score ≥ 6). HOTAIR was upregulated in tumors with a large size 
(P = 0.021), more advanced clinical stage (P = 0.012) and increased lymph node 
tumor burden (P = 0.005). Quantified using real-time PCR, HOTAIR expression 
levels in fresh tissue and paraffin-embedded samples were 5.2 ~ 48.4-fold higher 
compared with non-cancer tissue samples. Moreover, HOTAIR expression levels 
increased with clinical stage progression, which was consistent with ISH 
findings in the paraffin-embedded tissue. Most importantly, NPC patients with 
higher HOTAIR levels had a poor prognosis for overall survival using univariate 
and multivariate analysis. In addition, HOTAIR mediated the migration, invasion 
and proliferation of NPC cells in vitro. HOTAIR is a potential biomarker for the 
prognosis of NPC, and dysregulation of HOTAIR might play an important role in 
NPC progression.