Among them, HOTAIR, AFAP1-AS1, POU3F3, HNF1A-AS1, PlncRNA1, SPRY4-IT1, ENST00000435885.1 and ENST00000547963.1 were significantly higher in most of ESCC tumor tissues compared with paired adjacent normal tissues (Figure 1). Here, AFAP1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.