AFAP1 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Among these differentially expressed lncRNAs, some have been previously reported associated with NPC; for example, AFAP1-AS1 (41), LOC284454 (42), PVT1 (16) and LINC01420 (40) have been reported upregulated in NPC tissues and promoted migration and invasion ability of NPC cells, these findings verified the reliability of our gene array data.