| خلاصه مقاله | Introduction: Head and neck/oral cancer(HNOC), a heterogeneous group of tumors that extend
from the oral cavity to the upper gastrointestinal tract, is the sixth most common cancer
worldwideaccounting for 4% of cancers in men and 2% of cancers in women. Despite the
development of advanced treatments, the prognosis forthese patients has remained unchanged for
decades. Thus, more effective prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers are urgently required for early
detecting of HNOC which facilitates timely treatment. Accumulating evidence suggests that
microRNAs, small single-stranded non-coding RNAs, play important roles in many human
cancers. MicroRNAs are pivotal regulators of diverse cellular processes including proliferation,
differentiation, apoptosis, survival, motility, and morphogenesis.This will lead to the identification
of specific microRNA expression patterns that may become powerful biomarkers for diagnosis
and prognosis of HNOC. The present review aimed to provide a detailed overview of the most
extensively studied MicroRNAs that are aberrantly expressed in HNOC and highlighting their
utility as biomarkers.
Materials & Methods: A literature review was performed using PubMed, Scopus and Web of
science databases.All articles publishedbetween 2012 and 2022 that analyzed the circulating
microRNAs with probability to be used as biomarkers in head and neck cancer.
Result: MicroRNAs play critical roles in the overall surveillance outcomes by functioning either
as promoting tumor miRNAs (onco-miRNAs) or as tumor suppressor miRNAs, whose over or
underexpression respectively leads to cancerous growth. In HNOC, families of miR-21, miR-31,
miR-99a and miR-142 were generally overexpressed while families of miR-125, miR-145 and
miR-199 were mainly underexpressed. However, some controversies can be found with miR-15,
miR-30, miR-155, miR-375 families, which have been described to work both as onco-miRNA
and tumor suppressor miRNAs.
Conclusion: MicroRNA knowledge provides opportunities for early diagnosis and subsequent
monitoring of HNOC in a less invasive, simple manner, allowing for serial sampling to evaluate
presensence, treatment response, and minimal residual disease. |