转运RNA (tRNA)在遗传信息的传递中扮演着重要的角色，tRNA的异常直接导致翻译失调并引起疾病，包括癌症。复杂的修饰使tRNA能够执行其精细的生物功能。适当修饰的改变可能会影响tRNA的稳定性，损害它携带氨基酸的能力，并破坏反密码子和密码子之间的配对。研究证实，tRNA修饰的失调在癌症发生中起着重要作用。此外，当tRNA的稳定性受损时，特定的核酸酶会将tRNA剪切成小的tRNA片段 (tRFs)。尽管已经发现tRFs在肿瘤发生中发挥了重要的调控作用，但其形成过程远未清楚。了解癌症中不适当的tRNA修饰和异常的tRFs形成对揭示病理状态下tRNA代谢过程的作用有利，这可能开辟了防癌和治疗的新途径。Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) play pivotal roles in the transmission of genetic information, and abnormality of tRNAs directly leads to translation disorders and causes diseases, including cancer. The complex modifications enable tRNA to execute its delicate biological function. Alteration of appropriate modifications may affect the stability of tRNA, impair its ability to carry amino acids, and disrupt the pairing between anticodons and codons. Studies confirmed that dysregulation of tRNA modifications plays an important role in carcinogenesis. Furthermore, when the stability of tRNA is impaired, tRNAs are cleaved into small tRNA fragments (tRFs) by specific RNases. Though tRFs have been found to play vital regulatory roles in tumorigenesis, its formation process is far from clear. Understanding improper tRNA modifications and abnormal formation of tRFs in cancer is conducive to uncovering the role of metabolic process of tRNA under pathological conditions, which may open up new avenues for cancer prevention and treatment.Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.