Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
It is becoming increasingly evident that aberrantly expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) are responsible for a number of disease processes, including cancer initiation and progression. miRNAs have been implicated as key players in numerous neoplasms, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Functionally, deregulation of miRNAs that act either as tumour suppressors or oncogenes results in numerous cancer-associated phenomena, including changes in proliferation, migration, and cell survival. Furthermore, miRNA expression has been associated with chemoresistant or radioresistant phenotypes; highlighting the importance of miRNAs in mediating oncogenic processes. Prognostic and predictive miRNA signatures have been defined for a variety of cancer types, including NPC, whereby these signatures offer a potentially important clinical tool for assessing the disease state, as well as predicting treatment response and clinical outcome. Therefore, further examination and validation of miRNAs that are deregulated in NPC will provide insight into the fundamental drivers of this disease, which will aid in the identification of novel targeted treatments. This review summarizes recent advances in the study of miRNAs in NPC, with specific discussion on the role of miRNAs in NPC pathogenesis and the potential utility of miRNAs as prognostic biomarkers. Our increasing understanding of the role of miRNAs in NPC tumorigenesis and their application as novel biomarkers will undoubtedly prove useful in the stratification of future patients into clinically relevant treatment classifications, thereby improving and personalizing disease management.
Introduction
MicroRNAs (miRNAs; miRs) have a fundamental role in cancer initiation, progression, and treatment response. Recent genomic studies have identified deregulation of several miRNAs in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and have identified potentially clinically relevant prognostic miRNA signatures.[1–3] Based on a number of reports that have described the presence of tumour-specific biomarkers circulating in the plasma of patients for many tumour types;[4,5] tumour-specific miRNA signatures might prove to be highly useful as early, non-invasive tools for diagnosis and prognosis. Furthermore, in addition to a number of miRNAs encoded in the human genome that are determined to be deregulated in NPC, expression of miRNAs encoded by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), known to be the most common causal agent in NPC,[6,7] have also been detected in these tumours. EBV-associated miRNAs might well be functioning as drivers of NPC tumorigenesis and progression. In addition to their enormous potential as putative biomarkers, exploring the role of miRNAs in NPC pathogenesis will likely inform important insights into NPC biology, including regulation of proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis, as well as resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In this article, we will review the functional role of miRNAs in NPC pathogenesis, and examine their potential for use as prognostic and predictive biomarkers.
Chin Clin Oncol. 2016;5(2) © 2016 AME Publishing Company
