MicroRNAs and Cancer Racial Disparities

Abstract

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite various efforts to reduce cancer mortality, such as decreasing tobacco use, improving early detection and prevention methods, and enhancing cancer care and treatments, certain racial and ethnic groups continue to experience higher cancer incidence and mortality rates, along with shorter survival compared to other groups. Several factors, including socioeconomic status, environmental influences, diet, and behavior, contribute to these racial disparities. More importantly, scientists have identified a genetic basis for these observations, with a growing body of research highlighting microRNAs as significant players in cancer racial disparities. This review focuses on various types of microRNAs (such as epigenetically regulated, copy number altered, circulating, and exosomal) and microRNA single-nucleotide variations in the context of cancer-related racial disparities. Additionally, we have summarized the existing resources, including racial-specific model cell lines and cancer cohorts that include patients from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, we provide here several key things to consider for future investigations. While many challenges remain, we aim to offer a balanced overview of this field to help scientists with varying expertise address these issues. This article is categorized under: RNA in Disease and Development > RNA in Disease.