Landscape of Noncoding RNA in Prostate Cancer

The transcriptome of prostate cancer is highly heterogeneous, with noncoding transcripts being essential players. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) are two unique classes of noncoding RNA drawing increasing attention. Biologically, they have intriguing properties with important regulatory functions. Clinically, they present as promising biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Recent advancements in technologies have opened up new directions for noncoding RNA research, which include RNA-protein interaction, RNA secondary structure, and spatial transcriptomics. Furthermore, recent work has also evaluated the clinical applications of these noncoding RNAs in noninvasive liquid biopsy and RNA-based therapies. In this review, we summarize recent findings on lncRNAs and circRNAs in prostate cancer, discuss their clinical utilities, and highlight these exciting areas of research.