The development of the new sequencing technologies has unveiled a new
world of regulatory non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that is revolutionizing our
understanding of the RNA world. New transcripts with non-coding functions are being
identified from most of the human genome. Although we have just started to study
these ncRNAs, the broad list of regulatory functions assigned to them has assured a
prominent role in the regulation of the molecular processes involved in human cancer.
This chapter presents a review of the state of the art in the study of ncRNAs and their
relationship with human cancer, summarizing the origin, structure and function of the
most relevant new classes of ncRNAs. In addition, a selection of recent patents related
to ncRNAs and human cancer is included here, analyzing their promising potential in
the diagnosis and treatment of human cancer.
Keywords: BARD1, cancer, ceRNAs, HOTAIR, lincRNA, lncRNA, miRNA,
ncRNAs, PASR, piRNAs, PROMPT, PTEN, SNORD, sncRNAs, snoRNA,
TERRA, tiRNAs, TSS, T-UCR, XIST.
