Recently, increasing evidence revealed functional roles of lncRNAs in metastasis and progression of HCC.25, 26 For instance, CDKN2B‐AS1, an oncogenic lncRNA of HCC, promoted NAP1L1‐mediated PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling by acting as a molecular sponge of let‐7c‐5p, which indicated that CDKN2B‐AS1 may be a potential prognostic biomarker and a candidate target for HCC therapy.27 In the present study, we focused on lncRNA SNAI3‐AS1 (NR_015378), which located at Xp11.23, is a novel lncRNA which identified from a lncRNA microarray analysis. Here, CDKN2B is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.