The role of miRNAs in cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a devastating malignancy with high mortality, in part due to the combination of late presentation, significant diagnostic challenges and limited effective treatment options. Late presentation and diagnosis contribute to the high mortality in CCA and there is an urgent unmet need for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment stratification to improve clinical outcomes. MiRs are small ncRNA molecules that regulate gene expression and modulate both tumor suppressive and oncogenic pathways. They have a well-defined role in carcinogenesis, including CCA. In this review, we outline the evidence for MiRs in the pathogenesis of CCA and their potential utility as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to guide clinical management.

Keywords :

• biomarkers
• carcinogenesis
• cell growth
• hepatobiliary malignancy
• liver cancer
• oncogenesis
• prognosis markers
• signaling pathways

Financial & competing interests disclosure

JA Howell is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Early Career Fellowship grant. The authors are grateful to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Funding scheme at Imperial College London for support. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

JA Howell is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Early Career Fellowship grant. The authors are grateful to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Funding scheme at Imperial College London for support. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.