title: Micro-RNAs as diagnostic or prognostic markers in human epithelial malignancies.
abstract: Micro-RNAs (miRs) are important regulators of mRNA and protein expression; the ability of miR expression profilings to distinguish different cancer types and classify their sub-types has been well-described. They also represent a novel biological entity with potential value as tumour biomarkers, which can improve diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of treatment response for human cancers. This endeavour has been greatly facilitated by the stability of miRs in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues, and their detection in circulation. This review will summarize some of the key dysregulated miRs described to date in human epithelial malignancies, and their potential value as molecular bio-markers in FFPE tissues and blood samples. There remain many challenges in this domain, however, with the evolution of different platforms, the complexities of normalizing miR profiling data, and the importance of evaluating sufficiently-powered training and validation cohorts. Nonetheless, well-conducted miR profiling studies should contribute important insights into the molecular aberrations driving human cancer development and progression.
authors: Ontario Cancer Institute/Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Hui
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: How
authors: Emma
authors: E
authors: Ito
authors: Fei-Fei
authors: FF
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000378:metabolism*; D016612:Paraffin Embedding
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs