title: Expression profile of microRNA in epithelial cancer: diagnosis, classification and prediction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNAs (miRNAs), the small non-coding RNAs, regulate gene expression in a sequence-specific manner. Up to one-third of human messenger RNAs (mRNAs) appear to be miRNA targets. Each miRNA can target hundreds of mRNA transcripts and production of proteins directly or indirectly, while more than one miRNA can converge on a single transcript target. Therefore, potential regulatory circuitries afforded by miRNAs are enormous. Recent studies indicate that miRNAs act as key regulators of various fundamental biological processes, in which common pathways are shared with cancer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To provide an overview of the potential application of miRNA profile in human epithelial cancer diagnosis, more than 180 miRNA-related publications have been reviewed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increasing evidence shows that the expression of miRNAs is remarkably deregulated in human cancer owing to multiple epigenetic and genomic alterations, and several miRNAs have been demonstrated to serve as tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes in cancer. The deregulated miRNA expression profile in human cancer may prove a powerful tool for cancer detection, diagnosis, classification and prognosis.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Center for Research on Early Detection and Cure of Ovarian Cancer, Rm 1209 BRB II/III, 421 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA +1 215 5734780 ; +1 215 573 7627 ; linzhang@mail.med.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Jinghe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coukos
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang