MBD2 and cancer: Figure 1 summarizes the known and possible epigenetic mechanisms through which the lncRNAs involved in cancer can act on tumour suppressor genes, according to their roles in different categories of epigenetic modification. Another possibility, not shown in the schemes, is that the lncRNAs recruit demethylases and/or acetylases to the promoter regions of oncogenes, and thus the lncRNAs might direct the transcriptional activation of such protein-coding genes. Below, we discuss the lncRNAs that are involved in cancer and that act via epigenetic mechanisms (Table 1).