Circulating and Intracellular miRNAs as Prognostic and Predictive Factors in HER2-Positive Early Breast Cancer Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small noncoding RNAs that can act as both oncogene and tumor suppressors. Deregulated miRNA expression has been detected in human cancers, including breast cancer (BC). Considering their important roles in tumorigenesis, miRNAs have been investigated as potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers. Neoadjuvant setting is an optimal model to investigate in vivo the mechanism of treatment resistance. In the management of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-positive early BC, the anti-HER2-targeted therapies have drastically changed the survival outcomes. Despite this, growing drug resistance due to the pressure of therapy is relatively frequent. In the present review, we focused on the main miRNAs involved in HER2-positive BC tumorigenesis and discussed the recent evidence on their predictive and prognostic value.

Unlocking the Potential of Circulating miRNAs in the Breast Cancer Neoadjuvant Setting: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…This was observed for miRNAs that were detected at baseline and at different time points. Nevertheless, these pooled results included different circulating miRNAs, diverse types of samples, and a heterogeneous BC population, which might have influenced the magnitude of the overall effect size since the consideration of molecular subtype is crucial in determining specific miRNAs’ predictive and prognostic value [ 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ]. In addition, specific miRNAs’ level patterns may influence a predictive biomarker’s ability to predict a therapeutic response [ 27 , 78 ].…”

Prognosticating 2-Year Survival Rate of Breast Cancer Patients Through Plasma miRNA-21 and Other Associating Factors

“…MiRNA, a prognosis factor for the severity and survival of BC patients, is considerably associated with severity and mortality when detected in a higher level. 2 , 4 , 8 , 19 There are many types of miRNAs detected in BC, one of which is miRNA-21 that mainly depicts the progression of BC. 20 , 21 A meta-analysis study of Wang et al stated that miRNA-21 was correlated with cancer proliferation and metastasis.…”

Towards Unravelling the Role of ERα-Targeting miRNAs in the Exosome-Mediated Transferring of the Hormone Resistance

“…Aiko Sueta and colleagues revealed that a combined signature of four miRNAs (miR-4448, miR-2392, miR-2467-3p and miR-4800-3p) could be used to discriminate between pCR and non-pCR patients with triple-negative breast cancer [97]. It is interesting to note that not only intracellular miRNAs, but also circulating miRNAs, have great potential for use as potent biomarkers [98]. Intriguing new data suggest that miRNAs will be used to overcome resistance.…”