microRNAs as markers of survival and chemoresistance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Evaluation of: Preis M, Gardner TB, Gordon SR et al. microRNA-10b expression correlates with response to neoadjuvant therapy and survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Gin. Cancer Res. 17(17), 5812-5821 (2011). microRNAs (miRs) are a recently recognized class of noncoding short RNAs, 17-25 nucleotides in length, that play a role in post-transcriptional gene regulation by translational repression and/or mRNA degradation. Various miRs have been highlighted in pancreatic cancer development and metastasis, and as potential clinical diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers. Recently, studies have indicated that miRs are responsible for resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. The miR-10b has been identified as a 'metastamiR' in various tumor types, notably breast cancer, but data surrounding its relevance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has been sparse. The evaluated article presents data indicating that miR-10b is upregulated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and can be used as a diagnostic marker in endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsies of suspicious pancreatic lesions. In addition, miR-10b may be able to guide neoadjuvant gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy and predict metastatic-free survival and overall survival.