Recently, a major paradigm shift has been observed regarding the importance of the non-coding human transcriptome. It is now regarded as a new opportunity for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Biomarker-guided therapeutics is a rapidly developing area which is increasingly being used to guide prognosis and treatment decision-making. Circulating non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have high abundance and stability in body fluids, which makes them potential non-invasive biomarkers. Likewise, the disease phenotype can be easily characterized by considering targeted transcriptome-originating biomarkers compared to traditional biomarkers. In addition, ncRNA profiling has already been performed and described in various body fluids, due to the ease of access and its minimally invasive nature.

Profiling with ncRNAs may provide an innovative approach for treatment allocation by reflecting the molecular configuration of any therapeutic intervention, based on its biological characteristics. Additionally, post-baseline changes in the ncRNA signature may also help to monitor the ongoing effectiveness of a particular intervention. Computational network-based analysis can be employed to analyze the aggregated information from patients, healthy individuals, and experimental studies to explain the disease mechanisms and to develop novel and precise therapeutic approaches along with better diagnosis. Bioinformatics approaches are used in the study of gene expression profiles to gain insight into tumor occurrence, development, and metastasis and can also be used for functional identification of ncRNAs for basic and clinical research.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect recent advancements in the use of circulation non-coding RNAs as biomarkers and their use in biomarker-guided therapeutics. Although the identification of functional ncRNAs is challenging, computational and bioinformatics analyses, data mining, predictive models, and literature reviews can uncover the relation of ncRNAs with cancer and other related diseases. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• ncRNAs as biomarkers to predict therapeutic responses
• Role of ncRNAs in tumor biology and cancer treatment
• Analysis of differential expression of ncRNAs in various cancers
• Systematic review and meta-analysis of the role of ncRNAs in biomarker-guided therapeutics
• Bioinformatic methods to predict disease-related ncRNAs and their role in diagnosis and treatment
• ncRNAs in targeted drug delivery
• Network-based analysis of ncRNAs in therapy resistance and targeted drug development
• Web-based ncRNA resources
• The limitations of ncRNA-based diagnostic methods and the identification of key challenges