Gastrointestinal tumours are tumours that originate in the digestive tract and have extremely high morbidity and mortality. The main categories include: oesophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancers. Circular RNAs are a new class of non‐coding RNAs with a covalent closed‐loop structure without a 5’ cap or a 3’ poly A tail, which can encode a small amount of polypeptide. Recent studies have shown that circRNAs are involved in multiple biological processes during the development of gastrointestinal tumours including proliferation, invasion and metastasis, radio‐ and chemoresistance, and inflammatory responses. Also, the clinical and pathological characteristics of the patient, such as staging and lymph node metastasis, are closely associated with the expression level of circRNAs. Further investigation of the function and the role of circRNAs in the development of gastrointestinal tumours will provide new directions for its clinical diagnosis and treatment.

中文翻译：

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环状RNA在胃肠道肿瘤中的作用及机制

胃肠道肿瘤是起源于消化道的肿瘤，具有极高的发病率和死亡率。主要类别包括：食道癌、胃癌和结直肠癌。环状RNA是一类新型的非编码RNA，具有共价闭环结构，没有5'帽或3'多聚A尾，可编码少量多肽。最近的研究表明，circRNAs 参与胃肠道肿瘤发展过程中的多种生物学过程，包括增殖、侵袭和转移、放射和化学抗性以及炎症反应。此外，患者的临床和病理特征，如分期和淋巴结转移，与 circRNA 的表达水平密切相关。