Extracellular and intracellular micrornas in pancreatic cancer: From early diagnosis to reducing chemoresistance

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PaC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies. The dismal survival rate of PaC patients is mainly due to the late diagnosis and their resistance to conventional chemotherapies. Emerging evidence suggests that miRNA can serve as a potential new diagnostic and therapeutic weapon to fight against PaC. Circulating miRNAs represent the most promising noninvasive tools for diagnosis owing to their high stability in blood. Combinations of circulating miRNAs with other serum indicators such as carbohydrate antigen 19–9 (CA19–9) were demonstrated to be valuable biomarkers for early PaC diagnosis. As miRNAs can regulate epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the progression of cancer stem cells (CSCs), two critical factors in PaC drug resistance, selectively manipulating miRNAs may improve the sensitivity of certain PaC chemotherapeutic agents, such as gemcitabine. Therefore, the investigations of miRNAs in PaC may provide potential novel approaches for both tumor diagnosis and treatment.