Advances in esophageal cancer: A new perspective on pathogenesis associated with long non-coding RNAs

Esophageal cancer is a malignant digestive tract cancer with high mortality. Although studies have found that esophageal cancer is involved in a complex and important gene regulation network, the pathogenesis remains unclear. The recently described long non-coding RNAs (IncRNAs) are one effective part of the gene regulation network. However, in past decades, lncRNAs were thought to be "transcript noise" or "pseudogenes" and were thus ignored. Early studies indicated that IncRNAs play pivotal roles during evolution. However, in recent years, increasing research has revealed that many IncRNAs are associated with tumorigenesis. In particular, IncRNAs may act as important elements for epigenetic regulation, transcription, post-transcriptional regulation and post-translational modification of proteins. Additionally, they may be novel biomarkers for tumors and therapeutic targets in cancer. Here, we summarize the functions of IncRNAs in esophageal cancer, with an emphasis on IncRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms that affect the biological characteristics of esophageal cancer. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.