Long non-coding RNAs: a new hope for the cervical cancer staging

Cervical cancer (CC) is a major cause of death among women of the reproductive age group worldwide. Approximately 95% of the cases occur due to HPV infection. CC is staged into various International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stages, based on tumor size, invasion, spread, cytology, and histopathology. Early-stage CC is mostly curable, while, at late-stages it is often fatal and therapy-resistant. Biomarkers are emerging as lucrative prognostic and therapeutic targets in cancers. Among the different categories of biomarkers available, the epigenetic biomarkers are emerging as important therapeutic targets. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are excellent targets because of their stagewise differential expression levels, and functional roles in cancer development, and progression. They act by targeting various microRNAs (miRNAs), other RNAs or DNA, histone protein complexes, regulatory loops, controlling epigenetic modifications and gene or protein expressions. Moreover, they are easily accessible and can serve as accurate biomarkers for easy and fast detection of cancers, probably even to the level of specific cancer stages. However, much has not yet been elucidated about the regulatory roles of lncRNAs, especially in the context of CC. In this article, we have thoroughly discussed the known roles of lncRNAs, which have been explored as prognostic biomarkers in CC. We have also identified some uniquely upregulated lncRNAs at various stages of CC from our analysis from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). If explored properly, lncRNAs might serve as targets for the cure of CC, in future.