Involvement of noncoding RNAs in epigenetic modifications of esophageal cancer

Abstract Esophageal cancer (EC) is a serious digestive malignancy and is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Apart from genetic mutations, many epigenetic alterations including DNA methylation and histone modifications associated with chromatin remodeling have been identified in the regulation of gene expression in EC. Recently, noncoding RNAs, and mainly lncRNAs and miRNAs, have been revealed to be involved in the epigenetic regulation of EC. In this review, we focus on describing new insights on epigenetic processes associated with noncoding RNAs, which have been characterized to be responsible for the development and progression of EC.