A CURRENT PERSPECTIVE TO THE HALLMARKS OF CANCER

Cancer is a serious genetic disease caused by a series of disorders in the genome. Development of hightroughput sequencing approaches as well as the publication of large-scale projects have enabled the identification of several non-coding RNA molecules that are differentially expressed in various types of cancer. It has been reported that ncRNA transcripts such as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) have critical roles in the development and progression of cancer and can be used in the diagnosis/treatment of cancer. In particular, miRNAs are small RNA molecules which control gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and play critical roles in the important hallmark capabilities of cancers such as metastasis, invasion, cell proliferation, differentiation, and angiogenesis. Similarly, lncRNAs have also been identified as RNA transcripts that have important roles in the understanding of the molecular mechanism of cancer. Accordingly, in this comprehensive review, functional ncRNA molecules without protein coding capacity such as miRNAs, lncRNAs, and T-UCRs and the hallmarks of cancer were discussed together with a current perspective.