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Review
. 2023 Aug 22;15(8):e43931.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.43931. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Clinical Value of Circulating microRNAs in Diagnosis and Prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic Review

Mithum Senaratne  1 , Shivling S Swami  1 , Soe Lwin Aye  1 , Yash Trivedi  1 , Zoryana Bolgarina  2 , Heet N Desai  1 , Lubna Mohammed  1
Affiliations
Review

Clinical Value of Circulating microRNAs in Diagnosis and Prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic Review

Mithum Senaratne et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most common cancers and has a high mortality rate due to high invasiveness and rapid progression. Microribonucleic acid (microRNA) plays an essential role in diagnosing PC in the early stages, which improves the five-year survival rate. This systematic review aims to highlight the different subtypes of serum and plasma microRNAs and panel-based assays of microRNAs and how they play a crucial role in the diagnosis and prognosis of PC as a high-sensitive and specific novel biomarker. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, an in-depth search was performed by using regular keywords and major Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) keywords in PubMed (MEDLINE), PubMed Central, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Cochrane Library for articles related to this topic and published between 2013 and 2023, up to April 18, 2023. Further eligibility criteria and quality assessment tools were employed to assess the risk of bias, and 13 articles were finalized to be used in this review. The chosen articles included five cross-sectional studies, six systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and two literature reviews. This review provides strong evidence of the usage of microRNA for early diagnosis. It can also be used to exclude differential diagnoses of other diseases, and its prognostic value for determining metastasis and therapeutic efficacy in PC patients. Also, combining microRNA panels with carbohydrate antigen 19.9 (CA19-9) improves the sensitivity and specificity of microRNA as a biomarker.

Keywords: circulating exosomes; ductal pancreatic carcinoma; highly sensitive biomarker; highly specific biomarker; microrna; mir; molecular biomarker; pancreatic cancer; pancreatic cancer diagnosis; pancreatic cancer prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Presentation of microRNA as a diagnostic and prognostic factor in pancreatic cancer
Image credit: Mithum Senaratne
Figure 2
Figure 2. The PRISMA chart demonstrating the selection process of the included articles
PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Figure 3
Figure 3. Presentation of the increasing diagnostic value of microRNA
CA 19-9: carbohydrate antigen 19-9 Image credit: Mithum Senaratne
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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