Dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs has been found in many human cancers, including colorectal cancer that is still the third most prevalent cancer worldwide and related to poor prognosis; along with this, robust testimony has identified that long non-coding RNAs can take charge of tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. This review summarizes nowadays research achievements on the character of long non-coding RNAs in the prognosis and diagnosis of colorectal cancer. On the basis of the results acquired in the last decade, some long non-coding RNAs are rising as biomarkers of colorectal cancer for prognosis, diagnosis, even prediction of therapeutic result, and have crucial effects in the regulation of colorectal cancer cell functions such as proliferation, invasion, apoptosis, metastasis, and drug resistant ability. Also, long non-coding RNAs, circulating in body fluids, could act as novel, affordable, lightly accessible, non-invasive detection tools for the personal health management of patients with colorectal cancer. Especially, circulating long non-coding RNA profiles may be demonstrating preferable prognostic and diagnostic capability and better accuracy than respective long non-coding RNAs in colorectal cancer.
Keywords: Long non-coding RNA; biomarker; colorectal cancer; diagnosis; prognosis.