title: The Clinical Relevance of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Cancer.
abstract: Non-coding RNAs have long been associated with cancer development and progression, and since their earliest discovery, their clinical potential in identifying and characterizing the disease has been pursued. Long non-coding (lncRNAs), a diverse class of RNA transcripts >200 nucleotides in length with limited protein coding potential, has been only modestly studied relative to other categories of non-coding RNAs. However, recent data suggests they too may be important players in cancer. In this article, we consider the value of lncRNAs in the clinical setting, and in particular their potential roles as diagnostic and prognostic markers in cancer. Furthermore, we summarize the most significant studies linking lncRNA expression in human biological samples to cancer outcomes. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and validity of these non-coding RNA transcripts is compared in the various biological compartments in which they have been detected including tumor tissue, whole body fluids and exosomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1901 East Road, Houston, TX 77054, USA. andreia.silva@ineb.up.pt.|Instituto de Investigação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto 4200, Portugal. andreia.silva@ineb.up.pt.|INEB-Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, Porto 4150-180, Portugal. andreia.silva@ineb.up.pt.|ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar da Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, Porto 4050-313, Portugal. andreia.silva@ineb.up.pt.
authors.forename: Andreia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1901 East Road, Houston, TX 77054, USA. m.bullock@soton.ac.uk.|Cancer Sciences Unit, University of Southampton School of Medicine, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. m.bullock@soton.ac.uk.|Department of Surgery, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. m.bullock@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bullock
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1901 East Road, Houston, TX 77054, USA. gcalin@mdanderson.org.|Center for RNA Interference and Non-Coding RNAs, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1901 East Road, Houston, TX 77054, USA. gcalin@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Calin
keywords: biomarker; cancer diagnosis; cancer prognosis; circulating lncRNAs; exosomes; sensitivity; specificity