To determine whether high expression of Oct4, NEAT1 and MALAT1 contributes to poor outcome in lung cancer patients, Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed and data showed that high expression of Oct4 mRNA (P = 0.01), NEAT1 lncRNA (P = 0.006) or MALAT1 lncRNA (P = 0.014) in lung cancer patients was associated with poor overall survival (Fig. 5a-c). Here, POU5F1 is linked to lung cancer.