REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicNoncoding RNAs in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment: Drivers of Solid Tumor Evolution and Therapeutic PotentialView all articles
Long non-coding RNAs as key orchestrators of the tumor microenvironment in lung cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jilin University Stomatology Hospital, Changchun, China
- 2Jilin University College of Basic Medical Sciences, Changchun, China
- 3University of Bristol School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Bristol, United Kingdom
- 4Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- 5Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, United States
- 6The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
- 7Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Marburg, Germany
- 8China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, China
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Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as master regulators of the lung cancer tumor microenvironment (TME), where they reprogram immune cell functions, cytokine networks, and checkpoint signaling to create an immunosuppressive and therapy-resistant landscape. This review offers a comprehensive analysis of how lncRNAs mediate the interplay between tumor cells and immune components, underscoring their context-dependent roles as both oncogenic drivers and microenvironmental suppressors. It also highlights their clinical utility as liquid-biopsy biomarkers and their central role in conferring resistance to chemo-and radio-therapy. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the interplay between lncRNAs and the TME, highlighting the targeting of specific lncRNAs as a novel therapeutic strategy for precision lung cancer therapy.
Keywords: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), lung cancer, Tumor microenvironment (TME), biomarkers, therapy resistance
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Ren, Hao, Jin, Chen, Zhao, Ming, Chen and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guan-yu Chen, guanyu.chen@uni-marburg.de
Zhenglin He, lioushe@126.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.