Expression Profiling of Circulating miRNA During Adjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

摘要

microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that are key regulators of development and normal tissue homeostasis, and are also found to be deregulated in cancer. To date a wide range of miRNA candidates differently expressed in the primary tumour or blood serum of cancer patients has been identified and shown to be associated with diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic outcome. Rectal cancer is a specific subset of colorectal cancer which has a poor prognosis, with a 40% recurrence rate and less than 50% 5 year survival rate. We have investigated the circulating miRNA expression profile response during chemoradiation therapy in patients treated for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC).