Long non-coding RNAs: New perspectives for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest mortality rates among all cancers due to late diagnosis which narrows the timeframe for effective treatment, and to the low effectiveness of existing therapies. Long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) are arising as important regulators of many cell functions, contributing to the pathogenesis and evolution of many diseases, including pancreatic cancer. Different lncRNAs are differentially expressed in pancreatic cancer cells and seem to play an important regulatory role in driver mutations and altered signaling pathways, therefore interfering with tumorigenesis and disease progression. Increasing evidence further suggests that some lncRNAs are promising biomarkers for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, as well as for its prognosis, being strongly correlated with its clinical and pathological characteristics and overall survival. Lastly, manipulation of certain lncRNA levels had notorious consequences in pancreatic cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, treatment resistance, and tumor growth in several in vitro and in vivo studies, suggesting their potential as targets and/or agents for advanced therapies. As this is an emerging field, there is still much to unveil about the mechanisms by which lncRNAs contribute to the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. This work reviews recent articles that identified lncRNAs as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer, and also as therapeutic agents and targets with significant potential to overcome, at least, some of the limitations of existing therapies. Moreover, obstacles that currently limit the clinical use of lncRNAs in pancreatic cancer and potential solutions are also discussed.