Aberrantly upregulated FAM83H-AS1 facilitates malignant progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The biological roles of the newly identified long non-coding RNA family with sequence similarity 83 member H antisense 1 (FAM83H-AS1) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have remained largely elusive. In the present study, it was determined that, in comparison with paired para-tumorous tissues or normal esophageal epithelial cells, FAM83H-AS1 expression in cancer tissues and cell lines was markedly upregulated. Furthermore, FAM83H-AS1 expression was significantly elevated in patients with ESCC and lymph node metastasis or a late TNM stage, while no association with any other clinicopathological characteristics was detected. Furthermore, the overall and disease-free survival, as assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, were significantly shortened in patients with high FAM83H-AS1 expression. A functional study then uncovered that knockdown of FAM83H-AS1 significantly suppressed the proliferation and migration of ESCC cells. The present results suggested that FAM83H-AS1 may facilitate the malignant progression of ESCC and may be utilized as a prognostic predictor and possibly a novel therapeutic target in ESCC that warrants further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]