The emerging role of IncRNAs in cancer

It is increasingly evident that many of the genomic mutations in cancer reside inside regions that do not encode proteins. However, these regions are often transcribed into long noncoding RNAs (IncRNAs). The recent application of next-generation sequencing to a growing number of cancer transcriptomes has indeed revealed thousands of IncRNAs whose aberrant expression is associated with different cancer types. Among the few that have been functionally characterized, several have been linked to malignant transformation. Notably, these IncRNAs have key roles in gene regulation and thus affect various aspects of cellular homeostasis, including proliferation, survival, migration or genomic stability. This review aims to summarize current knowledge of IncRNAs from the cancer perspective. It discusses the strategies that led to the identification of cancer-related IncRNAs and the methodologies and challenges involving the study of these molecules, as well as the imminent applications of these findings to the clinic.