Abstract
Genetic and epigenetic alterations lead to the initiation and development of cancer. Epigenome of cancer cell is characterized by aberrant methylation of tumor suppressor genes, the functional consequence is the transcriptional repression of these genes. New evidence suggests an important role for long non-coding RNAs as modulators of the establishment of DNA methylation. HOTAIR represses the expression of tumor suppressor genes by establishing H3K27me3 and DNA methylation in promoter regions.