Circulatinglong non-coding RNA FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for gastric cancer

Abstract Background Growing evidence indicates that two long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), FEZ family zinc finger 1 antisense RNA 1 (FEZF1-AS1) and Actin filament associated protein 1 antisenseRNA1 (AFAP1-AS1), are highly expressed in different cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). However, the expression pattern and clinical utility of these two lncRNAs are still unknown. Methods Serum expression levels of FEZF1-AS1 andAFAP1-AS1 were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). CEA and CA19-9 were detected by ARCHITET I2000 SR. Analyses were all performed using SPSS software version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). P  Results Detection of serum FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 showed both of them were up-regulated in GC patients compared with the normal controls (p  Conclusion Our study indicated that serum FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 had better sensitivity and efficiency for the diagnosis of GC and the combination of the two lncRNAs might be used as a potential prognostic indicator in GC.