Promising biomarkers: Micrornas at diagnosis, therapy and prognostic evaluation of breast cancer

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs with regulatory functions, which play an important role in malignancies. An increasing amount of experimental evidence has shown that many miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in breast cancer and influence breast cancer behavior and progression. Furthermore, miRNAs can act either as tumor suppressors or as oncogenes, depending on the targets they regulate, and measurements of miRNAs expression in breast cancer have diagnostic and prognostic implications. Thus, this implies that miRNAs have huge potential as biomarkers. In addition, their extreme stability and ease of detection further support the idea that miRNAs have great potential to evolve into effective biomarkers in the clinic. The objective of this review is to update current realization regarding that miRNAs are promising candidates at diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic evaluation aspects of clinical application. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.