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Review
. 2009 Jul;9(5):455-67.
doi: 10.1586/erm.09.25.

Current molecular diagnostics of breast cancer and the potential incorporation of microRNA

Christine K Zoon  1 , Elizabeth Q Starker, Arianne M Wilson, Michael R Emmert-Buck, Steven K Libutti, Michael A Tangrea
Affiliations
Review

Current molecular diagnostics of breast cancer and the potential incorporation of microRNA

Christine K Zoon et al. Expert Rev Mol Diagn. 2009 Jul.

Abstract

Although comprehensive molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine have sparked excitement among researchers and clinicians, they have yet to be fully incorporated into today's standard of care. This is despite the discovery of disease-related oncogenes, tumor-suppressor genes and protein biomarkers, as well as other biological anomalies related to cancer. Each year, new tests are released that could potentially supplement or surpass standard methods of diagnosis, including serum, protein and gene expression analyses. All of these novel approaches have shown great promise, but initial enthusiasm has diminished as difficulties in reproducibility, expense, standardization and proof of significance beyond current protocols have emerged. This review will focus on current and novel molecular diagnostic tools applied to breast cancer with special attention to the exciting new field of microRNA analysis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MicroRNA processing in the cell.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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