结直肠癌( colorectal cancer , CRC )如今是消化系统中最常见的恶性肿瘤之一.近年来的统计发现,其发病率在多种癌症中排名第四,且其患病率和死亡率也呈逐年上升的趋势,因此,从多方面寻找预防和治疗结直肠癌的方法已经变得十分重要.随着研究的不断深入,人们逐渐开始关注微小 RNA 在癌症发生发展中起到的作用.环状 RNA ( circRNA )是一种由外显子序列和内含子序列形成的一种高丰度的非编码共价封闭 RNA .这些环状分子在细胞中广泛表达,超越了传统线性 mRNA 转录本的丰度.它们可以作为真正的 miRNA 海绵调节基因表达,也可以选择性剪接或作为转录因子编码蛋白质发挥作用.已有很多研究表明,多种 circRNA 在结直肠癌中表达异常,且其异常表达与结直肠癌细胞的增殖、凋亡、侵袭等发生发展过程以及结直肠癌细胞对药物的敏感性等生物学功能有关.本篇综述主要讨论了circRNA对结直肠癌的影响作用,以期 circRNA 可以作为预防和诊断结直肠癌的新的生物标志物.“,”Colorectal cancer ( CRC ) is one of the most common malignant diseases in the diges-tive system . Its morbidity ranks the fourth among various malignant tumors . The morbidity and mortality of CRC also show an increasing trend year by year . Multifaceted explorations to prevent and treat CRC have become very important . In recent years , with the deepening of research , people gradually pay attention to the role of microRNA in the occurrence and development of cancer . CircRNA is a kind of high abundance non-coding covalent closed RNA formed by exon sequence and intron sequence . These ring-like molecules are widely expressed in cells , exceeding the abundance of conventional linear mRNA transcripts . They can be used as true miRNA sponges to regulate gene expression and as selective splicing or as transcription fac-tors in protein encoding . Many studies have shown abnormal expression of various circRNA in CRC . At the same time , its abnormal expression is related to the biological processes such as CRC cell prolifera-tion , apoptosis , invasion and the sensitivity of CRC cells to drugs and other biological functions . This ar-ticle mainly discusses the effect of circRNA on CRC and highlights that circRNA has the potential to be used as a new biomarker for CRC .