Consistent with their expression pattern measured by RNA-seq in the SCH discovery and SCH validation cohorts, five lncRNAs (AP003548.1, PGM5-AS1, ADAMTS9-AS1, LINC01082, and LINC03016) were significantly down-regulated and one lncRNA (MIR503HG) were significantly up-regulated in ESCC tissue specimens measured by RT-qPCR assays (Fig. 3E and Supplementary Fig. S2B). Here, ADAMTS9 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.