Gene fusions have had a significant role in the development of various types of cancer, oftentimes involved in oncogenic activities through dysregulation of gene expression or signalling pathways. Some cancer-associated chromosomal translocations can undergo backsplicing, resulting in fusion-circular RNAs, a more stable isoform immune to RNase degradation. This stability makes fusion circular RNAs a promising diagnostic biomarker for cancer. While the detection of linear fusion RNAs and their function in certain cancers have been described in literature, fusion circular RNAs lag behind due to their low abundance in cancer cells. This review highlights current literature on the role of linear and circular fusion transcripts in cancer, tools currently available for detecting of these chimeric RNAs and their function and how they play a role in tumorigenesis.

基因融合在各种类型癌症的发展中发挥着重要作用，通常通过基因表达或信号通路失调参与致癌活动。一些与癌症相关的染色体易位可以进行反向剪接，从而产生融合环状 RNA，这是一种对 RNase 降解免疫的更稳定的亚型。这种稳定性使融合环状 RNA 成为有前景的癌症诊断生物标志物。虽然线性融合RNA的检测及其在某些癌症中的功能已在文献中描述，但融合环状RNA由于其在癌细胞中的丰度较低而落后。这篇综述重点介绍了关于线性和环状融合转录本在癌症中的作用的最新文献、目前可用于检测这些嵌合 RNA 及其功能以及它们在肿瘤发生中如何发挥作用的工具。