Though a growing number of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), including HOTAIR, MEG3, MALAT1, H19, GAPLINC, and GClnc1, have been reported to be associated with gastric cancer tumorigenesis, the role of lncRNAs in human gastric cancer and their prognostic value are still inadequately explored (Kogo et al., 2011; Gu et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2016). Here, MALAT1 is linked to gastric cancer.