Characterization of different ceRNA patterns in LSCC tissue and nontumor tissue. Putative mRNA-related ceRNA triplets were further validated by calculating the correlation coefficients of lncRNAs and their target coding genes. SATB1-AS1-miR1299-SAV, SATB1-AS1-miR1299-SH3KBP1, SATB1-AS1-miR1299-JADE1, SATB1-AS1-miR1299-CCNG2, SATB1-AS1-miR1299-HIPK2 and ZNF561-AS1-miR217-WNT5A were observed to be ceRNAs in LSCC tissue (A-F). The SATB1-AS1-miR1299-SAV and SATB1-AS1-miR1299-SH3KBP1 triplets were also observed to have ceRNA abilities in nontumor cancer (G-H). The SATB1-AS1-miR1299-CCNG2 triplet had a relatively low level of competitive activity in noncancer tissues (I); SATB1-AS1-miR1299-JADE1, SATB1-AS1-miR1299-HIPK2 and ZNF561-AS1-miR217-WNT5A had no competitive activity in noncancer tissues (J-L). The ceRNA pair (lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA) with a correlation coefficient ≥ 0.5 determined by qRT-PCR was defined as the final ceRNA triplet.