Asian Journal of Research in Medicine and Medical Science

Lung cancer is identified as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, with a 5-year survival rate [1]. More than 85% of lung cancer cases are related to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).The number of lung cancer cases is increasing every year globally. The development of lung cancer targeted therapies has shown significant improvement for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer but in spite of developing results with the targeted therapies, the early diagnosis and therapy of lung cancer still remain dismal. CircRNAs are a class of non-coding RNA with endogenous single-stranded covalently closed structures with tissue-specific and cell-specific patterns. CircRNAs generally originate from pre-mRNA undergoing non-canonical back splicing. After that, using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and data from bioinformatics, it was clarified that circular RNA has a high diversity and has relationship with cancer, and circRNAs are involved in the occurrence of various diseases. The expression level of the circRNA is varied across tissues, cell types, blood, and serum, aberrantly causing the various levels of expression of cancers. Based on the studies, this review discusses circRNA for the progression of lung cancer, the relationship between circular RNA and various types of cancers, including their biogenesis and functions, their sorting mechanisms, their potential roles for promoting and inhibiting cancer, and the emphasis on demonstrating whether circRNAs can be potential biomarkers for the prognosis and diagnosis of cancer.