Here, by incorporating this ab initio assembly-based human cancer transcriptome database and experimental validation, we identified a colorectal cancer-related lncRNA GAU1 from 12,382 cancer-associated lncRNA transcripts and verified its procancer function as upregulating the mRNA expression of polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyl transferase GALNT8, whose overexpression correlates with the cancer cell proliferation and poor patient survival. Here, GALNT8 is linked to colorectal cancer.