Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as essential players in cancer biology. Using recent large-scale RNA-seq datasets, especially those from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we have developed “The Atlas of Noncoding RNAs in Cancer” (TANRIC, http://bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/main/TANRIC:Overview), a user-friendly, open-access web resource for interactive exploration of lncRNAs in cancer. It characterizes the expression profiles of lncRNAs in large patient cohorts of 20 cancer types, including TCGA and independent data sets (>8,000 samples overall). TANRIC enables researchers to rapidly and intuitively analyze lncRNAs of interest (annotated lncRNAs or any user-defined ones) in the context of clinical and other molecular data, both within and across tumor types. Using TANRIC, we have identified a large number of lncRNAs with potential biomedical significance, many of which show strong correlations with established therapeutic targets and biomarkers across tumor types or with drug sensitivity across cell lines. TANRIC represents a valuable tool for investigating the function and clinical relevance of lncRNAs in cancer, greatly facilitating lncRNA-related biological discoveries and clinical applications.

Summary An individual’s sex has been long recognized as a key factor affecting cancer incidence, prognosis and treatment responses. However, the molecular basis for sex disparities in cancer remains poorly understood. We performed a comprehensive analysis of molecular differences between male and female patients in 13 cancer types of The Cancer Genome Atlas and revealed two sex-effect groups associated with distinct incidence and mortality profiles. One group contains a small number of sex-affected genes, whereas the other shows much more extensive sex-biased molecular signatures. Importantly, 53% of clinically actionable genes (60/114) show sex-biased signatures. Our study provides a systematic molecular-level understanding of sex effects in diverse cancers and suggests a pressing need to develop sex-specific therapeutic strategies in certain cancer types.