Abstract
In the last decades, progresses in medical oncology have ameliorated the treatment of patients and their outcome. However, further improvements are still necessary, in particular for certain types of tumors such as pancreatic, gastric, and lung cancer as well as acute myeloid leukemia where early detection and monitoring of the disease are crucial for final patient outcome. Liquid biopsy represents a great advance in the field because it is less invasive, less time-consuming, and safer compared to classical biopsies and it can be useful to monitor the evolution of the disease as well as the response of patients to therapy. Liquid biopsy allows the detection of circulating tumor cells, nucleic acids, and exosomes not only in blood but also in different biological fluids: urine, saliva, pleural effusions, cerebrospinal fluid, and stool. Among the potential biomarkers detectable in liquid biopsies, microRNAs (miRNAs) are gaining more and more attention, since they are easily detectable, quite stable in biological fluids, and show high sensitivity. Many data demonstrate that miRNAs alone or in combination with other biomarkers could improve the diagnostic and prognostic power for many different tumors. Despite this, standardization of methods, sample preparation, and analysis remain challenging and a huge effort should be made to address these issues before miRNA biomarkers can enter the clinic. This review summarizes the main findings in the field of circulating miRNAs in both solid and hematological tumors.
Highlights
In the last years, cancer research has focused on understanding the basis of tumor development as well as looking for new biomarkers and techniques to improve cancer prevention and early detection, as well as monitor disease progression and response to therapies
Yu et al.[90] demonstrated that miR-92a-2 plasma levels were significantly higher in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients than in healthy controls, suggesting that it could be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of SCLC
Zhou et al.[97] observed a reduction of miR-520f expression in the serum of patients compared with healthy controls and its expression was significantly associated with advanced Tumor Node Metastases (TNM) stage and metastasis. miR25 resulted important for both diagnosis and prognosis of Lung cancer (LC): its plasma expression levels were higher in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients compared to controls, and, among the patients, in those with positive lymph node metastasis, poorly differentiation, or advanced clinical stage, it correlated with aggressiveness and poor survival
Summary
Cancer research has focused on understanding the basis of tumor development as well as looking for new biomarkers and techniques to improve cancer prevention and early detection, as well as monitor disease progression and response to therapies. MiR-141 plasma levels increased in CRC patients with stage IV colon cancer compared to metastasis-free patients and its expression correlated with poor survival[55]. Yu et al.[90] demonstrated that miR-92a-2 plasma levels were significantly higher in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients than in healthy controls, suggesting that it could be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of SCLC.
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