title: MicroRNAs: Clinical Relevance in Colorectal Cancer.
abstract: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancer diagnoses and causes of mortality worldwide. MicroRNAs are a class of small, non-coding regulatory RNAs that have shown strong associations with colorectal cancer. Through the repression of target messenger RNAs, microRNAs modulate many cellular pathways, such as those involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. The utilization of microRNAs has shown significant promise in the diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer, owing to their unique expression profile associations with cancer types and malignancies. Moreover, microRNA therapeutics with mimics or antagonists show great promise in preclinical studies, which encourages further development of their clinical use for colorectal cancer patients. The unique ability of microRNAs to affect multiple downstream pathways represents a novel approach for cancer therapy. Although still early in its development, we believe that microRNAs can be used in the near future as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for colorectal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA. thomjoea@iupui.edu.
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA. MOhtsuka@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Masahisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA. martin.pichler@medunigraz.at.|Division of Oncology, Medical University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria. martin.pichler@medunigraz.at.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pichler
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA. hling@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D018450:Disease Progression; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009857:Oncogenes; D011379:Prognosis; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: colorectal cancer; diagnosis; miRNA; pathophysiology; prognosis; treatment