Circulating MicroRNA as Biomarkers: An Update in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-skin cancer among men. Currently available diagnostic tests for PCa are inadequate in terms of low specificity and poor sensitivity. microRNAs offer a hope to overcome these drawbacks by virtue of their cancer specific expression and high stability. They can readily be detected and quantified in frozen and as well as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. Observation of circulating miRNA in serum/plasma samples and other body fluids holds a promise to quickly move from research and provide a biomolecule of clinical relevance and an improvement over presently available biomarkers. This review highlights the potential role of circulating miRNAs as molecular markers for cancer and as targets for therapeutic manipulation. Further, this review summarizes the current understanding of various circulating miRNA with respect to prostate cancer. To conclude, circulating miRNAs are an active area of current investigation and holds promise to serve a wide range of clinical applications and unwrap a new era in cancer diagnosis and therapeutics.