Endometrial Cancer And Micrornas

Endometrial carcinoma, the most common gynecologic malignancy in Canada, is a heterogeneous disease. Accurate diagnosis and prognosis remains challenging, due both to the generally small amount of biopsy material available for examination, and the limited validation of biomarkers that have been correlated with outcome. As is the case with many human cancers, investigation into the differential expression of miRNAs is now beginning to provide robust and easily measured biomarkers associated with this cancer. This review will focus on the available miRNA literature as it pertains to endometrial carcinoma, including a discussion of miRNAs that appear to be consistently dysregulated in endometrial cancer compared to normal tissues, and on those whose expression correlates with outcome of the disease. Consolidating the available studies on miRNA expression in endometrial carcinoma, we propose to focus on findings that have been replicated in multiple studies, as well as those which appear to echo results from other cancers. We propose to explore potential downstream targets of the key identified miRNAs, and assess their putative role in endometrial carcinogenesis. Finally, we propose to summarize studies in human primary tumors and model systems that provide information about the molecular pathways that may underlie the development of this cancer.