Previous studies found that TUG1 was upregulated in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, osteosarcoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.21, 22, 23 However, our previous study found that TUG1 is downregulated in NSCLC.24 This finding is probably because lncRNAs exhibit remarkably tissue-specific expression patterns compared with protein-coding genes and indicates that TUG1 may have a tissue-specific expression pattern.31, 32 Moreover, Cao et al.33 found that TUG1 was upregulated in GC by analysis of lncRNA expression profiles from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) in GC. The gene discussed is TUG1; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.