Review Volume 16, Issue 4 pp 4052—4073

Figure 3. Overview of molecular functions of lncRNA in liver cancer and its application in clinical treatments. LncRNAs dysregulation as a result of epigenetic and genetic alterations makes lncRNAs perform as either activators or suppressors during the initiation of liver cancer. Functioning as signal, guide, decoy, and scaffold, the dysregulated expression of lncRNAs can affect the expression of protein-coding genes, which further induce complicated interactions and regulations resulting in positive or negative affection on tumor proliferation and metastasis. The dysregulated lncRNAs could be used as markers for diagnosis, targets of treatments, and potential indicators of the prognosis of liver cancer.