The Use of miRNAs in Predicting Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy in Oesophageal Cancer

Abstract

Oesophageal cancer (OC) is the ninth most common cancer worldwide. Patients receive neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) as standard of care, but less than 20% of patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) or a third of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients, obtain a clinically meaningful response. Developing a method of determining a patient’s response to NAT before treatment will allow rational treatment decisions to be made, thus improving patient outcome and quality of life. (1) Background: To determine the use and accuracy of microRNAs as biomarkers of response to NAT in patients with OAC or OSCC. (2) Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and the Cochrane library were searched to identify studies investigating microRNAs in treatment naïve biopsies to predict response to NAT in OC patients. (3) Results: A panel of 20 microRNAs were identified as predictors of good or poor response to NAT, from 15 studies. Specifically, miR-99b, miR-451 and miR-505 showed the strongest ability to predict response in OAC patients along with miR-193b in OSCC patients. (4) Conclusions: MicroRNAs are valuable biomarkers of response to NAT in OC. Research is needed to understand the effects different types of chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy have on the predictive value of microRNAs; studies also require greater standardization in how response is defined.

The Oesophageal Cancer Multidisciplinary Team: Can Machine Learning Assist Decision-Making?

“…38 Notably while some authors categorise T2N0 disease as early and amenable to endomucosal resection (EMR), NICE supports the use of NAT in this cohort, likely to minimise local recurrence risk from micro-metastases. 39,40 It can be readily appreciated that histology, TNM staging, and an assessment of patient fitness (commonly quantified by the WHO Performance Status classification) account for the bulk of decision critical parameters. While the concept of comorbidity is acknowledged, especially when determining suitability for palliative chemotherapy, such guidelines remain simplistic, rarely factoring in dimensions such as high-risk comorbidities, social variables, or even ease of patient access to CRT centres.…”

PdPt@SnS2 Nanosheets for a Novel Ultrasensitive Electrochemiluminescence Biosensor for miRNA-21 Assay

“…MiRNA Let-7 is involved in epigenetic switches, which lead to prostate cancer cell transformation . In addition, miRNA-99b, miRNA-451, miRNA-505, and miRNA-193b are valuable biomarkers for neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer . These examples indicate that accurate and sensitive detection of miRNAs is of great significance in the early treatment and diagnosis of cancer.…”

“…11 In addition, miRNA-99b, miRNA-451, miRNA-505, and miRNA-193b are valuable biomarkers for neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer. 12 These examples indicate that accurate and sensitive detection of miRNAs is of great significance in the early treatment and diagnosis of cancer. Several analytical methods have been used to monitor miRNAs, such as fluorescence, 13,14 colorimetry, 15 surface-enhanced Raman, 16 chemiluminescence, 17 and electrochemical methods.…”

MiR-4739 inhibits the malignant behavior of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells via the homeobox C10/vascular endothelial growth factor A/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT pathway

“…MicroRNAs are endogenously expressed short non-coding RNA molecules of 19–25 nucleotides in length that are involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Emerging evidence has revealed that microRNAs are involved in the development, progression, and clinical outcome of ESCC [ 6–8 ]. MicroRNAs are not only potential biomarkers for ESCC, but may also be useful in advanced RNA therapy for treating ESCC [ 9 ].…”