Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that several of the genomic mutations reside within the noncoding regions, thereby leading to profound impact on the genesis of various disease conditions, including cancer. These regions often produce various types of noncoding transcripts, broadly categorized as short and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). lncRNAs have emerged as one of the key epigenetic regulators of gene transcription. Genome-wide cancer mutation analyses revealed that the aberrant expressions of thousands of lncRNAs are associated with different cancer types. Some of them have been linked to malignant transformation and have been proposed as potential biomarkers in cancer. lncRNAs function either by guiding epigenetic modifiers to distinct genomic regions, or by acting as scaffolds that recruit multiple epigenetic modifiers, thereby coordinating their functions. In this chapter, we discuss how lncRNAs function in epigenetic regulation of cancer, with special emphasis on their role as chromatin scaffold, having potential significance in translational research.