Pancreatic cancer (PaC) is one of the most lethal cancers, with an increasing global incidence rate. Unfavorable prognosis largely results from associated difficulties in early diagnosis and the absence of prognostic and predictive biomarkers that would enable an individualized therapeutic approach. In fact, PaC prognosis has not improved for years, even though much efforts and resources have been devoted to PaC research, and the multimodal management of PaC patients has been used in clinical practice. It is thus imperative to develop optimal biomarkers, which would increase diagnostic precision and improve the post-diagnostic management of PaC patients. Current trends in biomarker research envisage the unique opportunity of cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) present in circulation to become a convenient, non-invasive tool for accurate diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of response to treatment. This review analyzes studies focused on cell-free miRNAs in PaC. The studies provide solid evidence that miRNAs are detectable in serum, blood plasma, saliva, urine, and stool, and that they present easy-to-acquire biomarkers with strong diagnostic, prognostic and predictive potential.

中文翻译：

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无细胞微RNA作为胰腺癌的非侵入性诊断和预后生物标志物

胰腺癌 (PaC) 是最致命的癌症之一，全球发病率不断上升。不利的预后主要是由于早期诊断的相关困难以及缺乏能够实现个体化治疗方法的预后和预测性生物标志物。事实上，尽管PaC研究投入了大量精力和资源，PaC患者的多模式管理已在临床实践中使用，但PaC预后多年来并未改善。因此，开发最佳生物标志物势在必行，这将提高诊断精度并改善 PaC 患者的诊断后管理。生物标志物研究的当前趋势设想了循环中存在的无细胞微 RNA (miRNA) 成为一种方便、非侵入性的准确诊断工具的独特机会，预后和对治疗反应的预测。本综述分析了针对 PaC 中无细胞 miRNA 的研究。这些研究提供了确凿的证据，证明可以在血清、血浆、唾液、尿液和粪便中检测到 miRNA，并且它们提供了易于获得的具有强大诊断、预后和预测潜力的生物标志物。