miRNAs in the Era of Personalized Medicine: From Biomarkers to Therapeutics.

In recent years, interest in personalized medicine has considerably increased [...].

Interplay Between MicroRNAs and Oxidative Stress in Ovarian Conditions with a Focus on Ovarian Cancer and Endometriosis.

Ovarian cancer and endometriosis are two distinct gynaecological conditions that share many biological aspects incuding proliferation, invasion of surrounding tissue, inflammation, inhibition of apoptosis, deregulation of angiogenesis and the ability to spread at a distance. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs (19-22 nt) that act as post-transcriptional modulators of gene expression and are involved in several of the aforementioned processes. In addition, a growing body of evidence supports the contribution of oxidative stress (OS) to these gynaecological diseases: increased peritoneal OS due to the decomposition of retrograde menstruation blood facilitates both endometriotic lesion development and fallopian tube malignant transformation leading to high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Furthermore, as HGSOC develops, increased OS levels are associated with chemoresistance. Finally, continued bleeding within ovarian endometrioma raises OS levels and contributes to the development of endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC). Therefore, this review aims to address the need for a better understanding of the dialogue between miRNAs and oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of ovarian conditions: endometriosis, EAOC and HGSOC.

Toward an improved assessment of quality of life in endometriosis: evaluation of the Spanish version of the Endometriosis Health Profile 30.

PURPOSE: Our main objective is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the EHP-30 questionnaire. The secondary aim is to evaluate the differences in the scores of the core EHP-30 scales between patients with either surgical treatment or conservative management of endometriosis. METHODS: Cross-sectional study conducted into a tertiary hospital endometriosis reference unit. All patients (n = 223) pre-surgically completed the core EHP-30 questionnaire, the EQ-5D questionnaire (n = 184) and a visual analogue scale (n = 210) for endometriosis-related pain. Demographical and clinical data were recorded. RESULTS: Psychometric characteristics of the Spanish core EHP-30 questionnaire were investigated. Statistical analyses confirmed the five-structure factor, a high degree of internal consistency and of item-total correlation for all the assessed items. Convergent validity between EQ-5D and EHP-30 items and between VAS and EHP-30 subscale pain was observed. Additionally, patients with surgical management rendered significantly higher scores in the core EHP-30 subscales "pain" and "control and powerlessness". CONCLUSIONS: We present the reliability, validity and acceptability of the Spanish core EHP-30 questionnaire, providing clinicians and researchers with an improved tool to assess the endometriosis-related quality of life. Additionally, we show that patients subsidiaries of surgical treatment for endometriosis present with higher pain and powerlessness than those with conservative management.