We show that in RNase H-deficient cells, which accumulate pathological R-loops, Dcr1 processes R-loops at transcriptional start sites (TSSs) and end sites (TESs), releasing paused RNA polymerase and accounting for small RNAs (sRNAs) resembling DNA-damage-associated sense sRNAs (sdRNAs) found in cancer cells. The gene discussed is DICER1; the disease is cancer.