Serum microRNAs as tumor markers for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

Abstract

The majority of patients with pancreatic cancer (PCa) present with an advanced stage that results in low resection rates. There is an urgent need to discover diagnostic tumor markers using blood samples to improve PCa management. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, which have important functions in regulating RNA stability and gene expression. Circulating miRNAs are stable and reflect physiological and pathological changes. Circulating miRNAs are considered to be potential candidate biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. Recently, the diagnostic values of circulating miRNAs for PCa have been reported, but have not been superior to that of CA19-9. In our study, a combination of serum miRNAs was superior to the serum CA19-9 levels for the detection of resectable PCa. A prospective study is going to evaluate the ability of miRNA combinations to discriminate PCa from healthy control or benign pacreatobiliary disease. The development of tumor markers using circulating miRNAs for cancer diagnosis could improve the detection rate of PCa, especially for resectable pancreatic cancer.