Ovarian cancer is the most prevalent gynecological malignancy affecting women throughout the globe. Ovarian cancer has several subtypes, including epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with a whopping incidence rate of 239,000 per year, making it the sixth most common gynecological malignancy worldwide. Despite advancement of detection and therapeutics, death rate accounts for 152,000 per annum. Several protein-based biomarkers such as CA125 and HE4 are currently being used for diagnosis, but their sensitivity and specificity for early detection of ovarian cancer are under question. microRNA (a small noncoding RNA molecule that participates in post-transcription regulation of gene expression) and its functional deregulation in most cancers have been discovered in the previous two decades. Studies support that miRNA deregulation has an epigenetic component as well. Aberrant miRNA expression is often correlated with the form of EOC tumor, histological grade, prognosis, and FIGO stage. In this review, we addressed epigenetic regulation of miRNAs, the latest research on miRs as a biomarker in the detection of EOC, and tailored assays to use miRNAs as a biomarker in ovarian cancer diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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microRNA 作为卵巢癌治疗中的生物标志物：优势与挑战


卵巢癌是影响全球女性的最常见的妇科恶性肿瘤。卵巢癌有多种亚型，其中上皮性卵巢癌 (EOC) 的发病率高达每年 239,000 例，使其成为全球第六大常见妇科恶性肿瘤。尽管检测和治疗技术取得了进步，但每年的死亡率仍高达 152,000 人。目前，几种基于蛋白质的生物标志物（例如 CA125 和 HE4）被用于诊断，但它们早期检测卵巢癌的敏感性和特异性仍受到质疑。 microRNA（一种参与基因表达转录后调控的小非编码 RNA 分子）及其在大多数癌症中的功能失调在过去二十年中已被发现。研究表明 miRNA 失调也有表观遗传因素。异常的miRNA表达通常与EOC肿瘤的形态、组织学分级、预后和FIGO分期相关。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了 miRNA 的表观遗传调控、miR 作为 EOC 检测生物标志物的最新研究，以及使用 miRNA 作为卵巢癌诊断生物标志物的定制检测方法。