Regulatory Roles of Noncoding RNAs in the Progression of Gastrointestinal Cancers and Health Disparities

Abstract

Annually, more than a million individuals are diagnosed with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers worldwide. With the advancements in radio- and chemotherapy and surgery, the survival rates for GI cancer patients have improved in recent years. However, the prognosis for advanced-stage GI cancers remains poor. Site-specific GI cancers share a few common risk factors; however, they are largely distinct in their etiologies and descriptive epidemiologic profiles. A large number of mutations or copy number changes associated with carcinogenesis are commonly found in noncoding DNA regions, which transcribe several noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that are implicated to regulate cancer initiation, metastasis, and drug resistance. In this review, we summarize the regulatory functions of ncRNAs in GI cancer development, progression, chemoresistance, and health disparities. We also highlight the potential roles of ncRNAs as therapeutic targets and biomarkers, mainly focusing on their ethnicity-/race-specific prognostic value, and discuss the prospects of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to investigate the contribution of ncRNAs in GI tumorigenesis.

Clinical value assessment for serum hsa_tsr013526 in the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma

“…Research into RNA modification is currently being extensively studied, and has provided the basis for identifying biomarkers of early‐stage GC and the untapped potential of therapeutic drugs. Existing clinical research has shown that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) or microRNA (miRNA) molecules have potent antineoplastic activities, and some have even shown significant effects in early human clinical trials 8 . LncRNAs can serve as oncogenes or tumor suppressors via different mechanisms, whereas also representing a potential drug target or therapeutic entity 9 .…”

“…Existing clinical research has shown that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) or microRNA (miRNA) molecules have potent antineoplastic activities, and some have even shown significant effects in early human clinical trials. 8 LncRNAs can serve as oncogenes or tumor suppressors via different mechanisms, whereas also representing a potential drug target or therapeutic entity. 9 It has been reported that many noncoding RNAs act on critical parts in GC-related signaling pathways, and therefore could be used as targets for tumor diagnosis and therapy.…”