Objective: To investigate the expression of the long noncoding RNA TUG1 and UCA1 in colon cancer tissue and their clinical significance. Methods: The frozen specimens of cancer tissues along with their adjacent tissues from 185 colon cancer patients undergoing surgical resection from January 2010 to June 2014 were collected. The expressions of TUG1 and UCA1 were determined by in situ hybridization and qRT-PCR respectively, and the relations of their expressions with the clinicopathologic features and prognosis of the patients were analyzed. Results: Both positive expression rates and relative expression levels of UCA1 and TUG1 in colon cancer tissue were significantly higher than those in the adjacent non-tumor tissue (all P<0.05). The expressions of UCA1 and TUG1 were significantly related to the clinicopathologic factors that included tumor size, lymph node metastasis, degree of differentiation and TNM stage (all P<0.05). Survival analysis showed that the overall survival rate in patients with high UCA1 expression or high TUG1 expression was significantly lower than that in patients with low UCA1 expression or low TUG1 expression (χ2=5.491, P=0.019; χ2=4.345, P=0.037). Both UCA1 and TUG1 expressions were independent risk factors for prognosis of the colon cancer patients (both P<0.05). Conclusion: The expressions of UCA1 and TUG1 are up-regulated in colon cancer tissue, and their high expressions are closely associated with the progression of colon cancer and poor prognosis of the patients.