Malignant tumors are a threat to human health, thus it is critical to better understand the mechanism of tumor occurrence and development and to find key therapeutic targets. Competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) is a type of RNA molecule that includes mRNA of coding-protein, pseudogenes, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), and circular RNA (circRNA) etc. It is created through a competitive combination of common small RNA (miRNA) and has an inhibitory effect on mRNA translation. ceRNA regulate the post transcriptional expression of genes by competitively binding to common microRNAs (miRNAs).Studies have shown that cernas are involved in tumor cell proliferation, invasion and migration, drug resistance, angiogenesis, as well as tumor immunity, and so on, affecting the progression of tumor development. This article reviews the reported roles of exosomal ceRNA in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors and the mechanisms underlying these.

Malignant tumours area leading cause of death globally, accounting for approximately 13% of all deaths. A detailed understanding of the mechanism(s) of the occurrence and development of malignant tumours and identification of relevant therapeutic targets are therefore key to tumour treatment. tsRNAs(tRNA-derived small RNAs)—also known as TRFs (tRNA-derived fragments), tiRNAs (tRNA-derived stress-induced RNAs), tRNA halves, etc.—are a recently identified class of small noncoding RNAs that are generated from mature tRNA or tRNA precursors through cleavage by enzymes such as angiogenin, Dicer, RNase Z, and RNase P. Several studies have confirmed that dysregulation of tsRNAs is closely related to the tumorigenesis of breast cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, lung cancer, and so on. Furthermore, research indicates that tsRNAs can be used as clinical diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for cancer. In our review, we summarized the recent research progress on the role and clinical application of tsRNAs in tumorigenesis and progression.