Dysregulated Expression of Long Noncoding RNAs in Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among women with gynecologic malignancies. The development and progression of ovarian cancer are complex and a multiple-step process. New biomarker molecules for diagnostic and prognostic are essential for novel therapeutic targets and to extend the survival time of patients with ovarian cancer. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non–protein-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that have recently been found as key regulators of various biological processes and to be involved in the development and progression of many diseases including cancers. In this review, we summarized the expression pattern of several dysregulated lncRNAs (HOTAIR, H19, XIST, and HOST2) and the functional molecular mechanism of these lncRNAs on the initiation and progression of ovarian cancer. The lncRNAs as biomarkers may be used for current and future clinical diagnosis, therapeutics, and prognosis.