Research advances on circulating miRNAs in esophageal cancer / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

There is a high incidence of esophageal cancer(EC) in China.The survival and prognosis of EC is unoptimistic due to the lack of efficient early diagnostic markers.There is an urgent demand of novel biomarkers with more stability,sensitivity and specificity.miRNAs are a class of small non-coding single stranded RNAs consisting of 21-23 nucleotides,which are involved in the pathological and physiological process of life activities.miRNAs are stable not only in tumor tissues,but also in serum/plasma.There are significant differences in the expression patterns of circulating miRNAs between two main types of EC.They are closely related to the occurrence and progression of EC,which make circulating miRNAs a novel kind of biomarkers for differential diagnosis,early supervision of esophageal cancer,and prognosis.