title: Plasma miRNA, an emerging biomarker for pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most dangerous types of cancer, much due to the lack of clinical symptoms in early stages. Early, noninvasive methods of detecting PC remain a great challenge in clinical practices. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small and non-coding single-strand RNAs, emerge as potential biomarkers for PC. MiRNAs are involved in PC progression and abnormal level of miRNAs in plasma has been observed in PC patients. A multi-center study recently conducted by Xu and colleagues demonstrated the potential value of using circulating miRNAs to distinguish PC from normal donors and other pancreas-related diseases.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA ; 2 Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Xiazhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA ; 2 Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA ; 2 Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Yuwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
keywords: MicroRNA (miRNA); biomarker; pancreatic cancer (PC)