Abstract
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive and heterogeneous malignancy, with highly variable outcomes among patients. Although classification and prognostic tools have been developed, standard therapy still fails in 30-40% of patients. Hence, identification of novel biomarkers is needed. Recently, circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been suggested as non-invasive biomarkers in cancer. Our aim was to review the potential role of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis, classification, prognosis, and treatment response in DLBCL.We performed a search in PubMed using the terms [((‘Non-coding RNA’) OR (‘microRNA’ OR ‘miRNA’ OR ‘miR’) OR (‘exosome’) OR (‘extracellular vesicle’) OR (‘secretome’)) AND (‘Diffuse large B cell lymphoma’ OR ‘DLBCL’)] to identify articles that evaluated the impact of circulating miRNAs as diagnosis, subtype, treatment response or prognosis biomarkers in DLBCL in human population.Among the twelve articles that met the inclusion criteria, eleven considered circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis, two for classification, and five for prognosis or treatment response. The limited number of studies performed and lack of consistency in results make it difficult to draw conclusions about the role of circulating miRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers in DLBCL. Although the preliminary associations observed seem promising, the only consistent result is the upregulation of mir-21 in DLBCL patients, which could be a biomarker for diagnosis. Further studies are needed.
Highlights
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), accounting for 30% to 40% of all newly diagnosed cases [1]
Our aim was to review the potential role of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis, classification, prognosis, and treatment response in DLBCL
Further 104 articles were excluded because they were focused in tumor tissue and did not include circulating miRNAs, were focused in specific groups of patients with additional pathologies, or did not analyze microRNAs as diagnosis, subtype, treatment response, or prognosis biomarkers
Summary
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), accounting for 30% to 40% of all newly diagnosed cases [1]. DLBCL is an aggressive malignancy, very heterogeneous in genetic abnormalities, clinical features and response to treatment. This heterogeneity results in highly variable outcomes among patients [2]. Cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) is considered as the standard first www.oncotarget.com line therapy for DLBCL. The application of R-CHOP has led to complete remission for 75-80% of patients [3]. 30-40% of patients that achieve complete remission relapse at a later stage and some patients have refractory disease. Those patients tend to respond poorly to additional chemotherapy lines [4]
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