Bijnsdorp Irene V, van Royen Martin E, Verhaegh Gerald W, Martens-Uzunova Elena S
Department of Urology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Pathology and Erasmus Optical Imaging Centre (OIC), Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Mol Diagn Ther. 2017 Aug;21(4):385-400. doi: 10.1007/s40291-017-0271-2.
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Despite extensive research, the molecular mechanisms underlying PCa initiation and progression remain unclear, and there is increasing need of better biomarkers that can distinguish indolent from aggressive and life-threatening disease. With the advent of advanced genomic technologies in the last decade, it became apparent that the human genome encodes tens of thousands non-protein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with yet to be discovered function. It is clear now that the majority of ncRNAs exhibit highly specific expression patterns restricted to certain tissues and organs or developmental stages and that the expression of many ncRNAs is altered in disease and cancer, including cancer of the prostate. Such ncRNAs can serve as important biomarkers for PCa diagnosis, prognosis, or prediction of therapy response. In this review, we give an overview of the different types of ncRNAs and their function, describe ncRNAs relevant for the diagnosis and prognosis of PCa, and present emerging new aspects of ncRNA research that may contribute to the future utilization of ncRNAs as clinically useful therapeutic targets.
前列腺癌（PCa）是最常见的癌症类型，也是男性癌症相关死亡的第二大主要原因。尽管进行了广泛的研究，但PCa发生和发展的分子机制仍不清楚，并且越来越需要能够区分惰性与侵袭性及危及生命疾病的更好的生物标志物。随着过去十年先进基因组技术的出现，很明显人类基因组编码了数以万计功能尚未被发现的非蛋白质编码RNA（ncRNAs）。现在很清楚，大多数ncRNAs表现出高度特异性的表达模式，局限于某些组织、器官或发育阶段，并且许多ncRNAs的表达在疾病和癌症（包括前列腺癌）中发生改变。此类ncRNAs可作为PCa诊断、预后或治疗反应预测的重要生物标志物。在本综述中，我们概述了不同类型的ncRNAs及其功能，描述了与PCa诊断和预后相关的ncRNAs，并介绍了ncRNA研究中可能有助于未来将ncRNAs用作临床有用治疗靶点的新出现的方面。
