Li C, et al. - In colorectal cancer (CRC), researchers focused on the expression and clinical relevance of serine peptidase inhibitor, Kunitz type 1 antisense RNA1 (SPINT1-AS1). They used the strand-specific real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction to analyze the expression levels of SPINT1-AS1 and the corresponding sense transcript SPINT1 mRNA in 150 pairs of CRC tissues and adjacent normal (AN) tissues, along with 45 pairs of preoperative and postoperative serum exosome samples. Findings demonstrated the upregulation of SPINT1-AS1 in CRC tissues and underscored an essential role of SPINT1-AS1 in CRC progression and prognosis. Regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and shorter relapse-free survival (RFS) time were correlated with SPINT1-AS1 expression. SPINT1-AS1 was also deemed an independent prognostic factor for RFS on Cox regression analysis. Overall, SPINT1-AS1 may serve as a candidate prognostic biomarker and molecular therapy target for CRC.