Potential New Cancer Biomarkers Discovered

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed the global landscape of a portion of the genome that has not been previously well-explored—long non-coding RNAs. This vast portion of the human genome has been considered the dark matter because so little is known about it. Emerging new evidence suggests that lncRNAs may play a role in cancer and that understanding them better could lead to new potential targets for improving cancer diagnosis, prognosis or treatment.

"We know about protein-coding genes, but that represents only 1%-2% of the genome. Much less is known about the biology of the non-coding genome in terms of how it might function in a human disease like cancer," said senior study author Arul M. Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology and S.P. Hicks Professor of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

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