Development of ovarian cancer involves the co-evolution of neoplastic cells together with the adjacent microenvironment. Steps of malignant progression including primary tumor outgrowth, therapeutic resistance, and distant metastasis are not determined solely by genetic alterations in ovarian cancer cells, but considerably shaped by the fitness advantage conferred by benign components in the ovarian stroma. As the dynamic cancer topography varies drastically during disease progression, heterologous cell types within the tumor microenvironment (TME) can actively determine the pathological track of ovarian cancer. Resembling many other solid tumor types, ovarian malignancy is nurtured by a TME whose dark side may have been overlooked, rather than overestimated. Further, harnessing breakthrough and targeting cures in human ovarian cancer requires insightful understanding of the merits and drawbacks of current treatment modalities, which mainly target transformed cells. Thus, designing novel and precise strategies that both eliminate cancer cells and manipulate the TME is increasingly recognized as a rational avenue to improve therapeutic outcome and prevent disease deterioration of ovarian cancer patients.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key cell-intrinsic identity for tumor cell migration, invasion, and stemness acquisition in cancer metastasis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have not been fully investigated for their involvement in regulating TGF-β-induced EMT and metastasis in lung cancer. Here, we demonstrated that the transcription of lncRNA in nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway 1 (LINP1) was inhibited by TGF-β1 in a SMAD4-dependent manner. LINP1 suppressed EMT of lung cancer cells, thereby controlling cancer cell migration, invasion, and stemless. Moreover, LINP1 inhibited TGF-β-induced EMT and cell invasion in lung cancer cells. Our study reveals the role of LINP1 in the regulation of TGF-β-induced EMT in human lung cancer.

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