Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common, aggressive malignancies with poor prognosis and high mortality. Although great progress has been made in recent decades, overall survival of HCC patients remains unsatisfactory due to high recurrence and metastasis. Accordingly, understanding and clarifying the underlying molecular mechanisms of metastasis has become increasingly important. Recently, accumulated reports have supported that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are dysregulated in HCC and are involved in various pivotal biological processes, including metastasis. The aim of this review was to investigate the dysregulation of lncRNAs in HCC and their function as oncogenes or tumour suppressors. Furthermore, reciprocal regulatory networks between lncRNAs and various molecules that were identified in HCC metastasis, including regulating epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT), controlling metastasis‑associated genes, and regulating tumour angiogenesis were examined. Numerous reports and information on lncRNAs may help identify lncRNAs that are potential novel diagnostic markers, prognostic markers and therapeutic targets.
Keywords: epithelial‑mesenchymal transition; hepatocellular carcinoma; long noncoding RNA; metastasis; therapeutic targets.