The Clinical Utility of Circulating MicroRNA-21 in the Diagnosis of Female Breast Cancer

Abstract

reast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. Its detection and treatment in early stages allow the decrease in morbidity and the increase in the survival rate. However, despite the advances and new strategies for combining surgical, radiotherapy and chemotherapy options, the percentage of patients developing metastases and progressing to advanced stages remains high. In this prospect, more reliable methods are needed for earlier detection of breast cancer replacing the common clinical methods to start early treatment. Serum tumor markers have been commonly used for the diagnosis of breast cancer as CA 15.3, CA 27.29 and steroid receptor status. Unfortunately, they provide unsatisfactory sensitivity and specificity for identifying early stage patients. Thus, the search for non-invasive biomarkers with higher sensitivity for early detection of breast cancer still remains a scientific challenge. Current evidence suggests that miRNAs dysregulation may affect some crucial biological processes of cells leading to tumor development. Their expression level is altered in various cancers exhibiting great potential in improving the diagnosis and prognosis of many cancers including breast cancer. One of which is miRNA-21 and its alterations have been shown to play critical roles in breast cancer.