Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been shown to contribute to tumorigenesis and progression. However, the functions of the majority of ncRNAs remain unclear. Through integrating published large-scale somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) data from various human cancer types, we have developed oncoNcRNA, a user-friendly web portal to explore ncRNAs with oncogenic potential in human cancers. The portal characterizes the SCNAs of over 58,000 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), 34,000 piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), 2700 microRNAs (miRNAs), 600 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and 400 small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) in 64 human cancer types. It enables researchers to rapidly and intuitively analyze the oncogenic potential of ncRNAs of interest. Indeed, we have discovered a large number of ncRNAs which are frequently amplified or deleted within and across tumor types. Moreover, we built a web-based tool, Correlations, to explore the relationships between gene expression and copy number from ~10,000 tumor samples in 36 cancer types identified by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). oncoNcRNA is a valuable tool for investigating the function and clinical relevance of ncRNAs in human cancers. oncoNcRNA is freely available at http://rna.sysu.edu.cn/onconcrna/.
Keywords: biomarker; cancer; ncRNAs; somatic copy number alteration.