Table 1.
Circulating microRNAs a potential biomarkers in human cancers.
| Cancer type | miRNA | Source | Expression | Significance | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hematological cancer | miR-21 | Serum | Up | Diagnosis of DLBCL disease | (21) |
| miR-150, miR-342 | Plasma | Up | AML vs. healthy controls | (22) | |
| miR-155 | Plasma | Up | CLL vs. healthy controls | (23) | |
| Lung cancer | miR-25, miR-223 | Serum | Up | Diagnosis of NSCLC disease | (15) |
| miR-1254, miR-574-5p | Serum | Up | Diagnosis of early stage NSCLC patients vs. controls | (24) | |
| miR-155, miR-197, miR-182 | Plasma | Up | Diagnosis of in stage-I NSCLC disease | (25) | |
| Prostate | miR-375, miR-141 | Plasma | Down | PCa patient vs. BPH controls | (26) |
| MiR-107, miR-574-3P | Urine | Up | PCa vs. healthy controls | (27) | |
| miR-205, miR-214 | Urine | Down | PCa vs. healthy controls | (28) | |
| Pancreatic | Index I (4 miRNAs) and Iindex II (10 miRNAs) | Whole blood | Differential | Early detection of pancreatic cancer vs. healthy controls | (29) |
| Hepatocellular carcinoma | miR-16, miR-199a | Serum | Down | HCC vs. chronic liver disease. miR-16 with AFP and AFP-L3 tumor protein markers increased sensitivity and specificity of HCC diagnosis | (30) |
| MiR-15b, miR-130b, and miR-16 | Serum | Up | HCC discriminate HBV hepatitis patients, and also sensitive rather than other tumor biomarkers for diagnosis of HCC | (31, 32) | |
| miR-625, miR-618, miR-532, miR-650, miR-516-5p | Urine | Differential | HCC (HCV positive) group vs. healthy controls | (33) | |
| Colorectal cancer | miR-29a, miR-92, miR-601, miR-760 | Plasma | Differential | Early diagnosis of CRC vs. healthy controls | (34, 35) |
| miR-31, miR-181b, miR-92, miR-203 and miR-21, let-7g | Serum | Differential | Good biomarkers for diagnostic of CRC compared with single protein biomarkers | (36) | |
| miR-200c | Serum | Up | Diagnosis of CRC lymph node metastasis | (37) | |
| Gastric cancer | miR-18a | Plasma | Up | GC vs. healthy controls | (38) |
| miR-122, miR-192 | Plasma | Differential | Diagnosis of distant metastasis in GC disease | (39) | |
| Ovarian cancer | miR-205, miR-let-7f | Plasma | Differential | Epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) vs. healthy controls | (40) |
| Esophageal | miR-21 | Serum | Up | Esophageal cancer and BTC vs. controls | (41, 42) |
| Cervical | miR-218 | Serum | Down | Diagnosis of cervical adenocarcinoma and lymphatic metastasis | (43) |
| Thyroid | let-7f, miR-151-5p, miR-222 | Serum | Up | Diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) | (44) |
| Astrocytomas | miR-15b*, miR-23a, miR-133a, miR-150*, miR-197, miR-497, miR-548b-5p | Serum | Down | Diagnosis of malignant astrocytomas with specificity and sensitivity | (45) |
| Head and neck | miR-125a, miR-200a | Saliva | Down | Oral squamous cell carcinoma patients vs. control subjects | (46) |
| Bladder | miR-125b and mir-126 | Urine | Differential | Diagnosis of bladder cancer | (46) |
PCa, prostate cancer; BPH, benign prostatic hyperplasia, HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; CRC, colorectal cancer; GC, gastric cancer; BTC, biliary tract cancer.