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Review
. 2024 Mar 8;25(6):3140.
doi: 10.3390/ijms25063140.

Circulating microRNAs in Cancer: A 5-Year Update with a Focus on Breast and Lung Cancers

Dario Siniscalco  1   2 , Umberto Galderisi  1 , Gianfranco Peluso  3   4 , Mauro Finicelli  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Circulating microRNAs in Cancer: A 5-Year Update with a Focus on Breast and Lung Cancers

Dario Siniscalco et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Circulating microRNAs (c-miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs found in different bodily fluids and are highly investigated for their prognostic potential and biological role in cancer. In this narrative review, we provide an update of the last five years' published papers (2018-2023) on PubMed about c-miRNAs in cancer research. We aim to capture the latest research interests in terms of the highly studied cancers and the insights about c-miRNAs. Our analysis revealed that more than 150 papers focusing on c-miRNAs and cancer were published in the last five years. Among these, there was a high prevalence of papers on breast cancer (BC) and lung cancer (LC), which are estimated to be the most diagnosed cancers globally. Thus, we focus on the main evidence and research trends about c-miRNAs in BC and LC. We report evidence of the effectiveness of c-miRNAs in hot topics of cancer research, such as, early detection, therapeutic resistance, recurrence risk and novel detection platform approaches. Moreover, we look at the deregulated c-miRNAs shared among BC and LC papers, focusing on miR-21 and miR-145. Overall, these data clearly indicate that the role of c-miRNAs in cancer is still a hot topic for oncologic research and that blood is the most investigated matrix.

Keywords: breast cancer; immunotherapy; lung cancer; miRNAs; recurrence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic presentation of the miRNA’s cellular release into circulation. The pre-miRNAs are exported to the cytoplasm where they are processed by the Dicer/TRBP complex to produce the miRNA duplex intermediate. The interaction with Ago and the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) in the cytoplasm leads to the final miRNA maturation. Then, miRNA can be secreted from the cells by passive or active release as free circulating miRNA (complexed with RBPs or lipoproteins), or encapsulated in vesicles (i.e., exosomes, microvescicles or apoptotic bodies). CSF = cerebral spinal fluids. All the icons for biological fluids, cells and miRNAs were created with BioRender.com (accessed on 25 January 2024).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Charts showing the number (on the left) and the percentage (on the right) of publications related to c-miRNAs in cancer research in the last five years (2018–2023). Data from PubMed using search terms: “circulating microRNA cancer” and “circulating microRNAs cancer” (accessed on May 2023). * This group encompasses the papers in which two or more cancers were considered.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Venn diagram showing the deregulated c-miRNAs shared among the studies cited in the present review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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