abstract: Clinical Outcome Prediction by MicroRNAs in Human Cancer: A Systematic Review

Clinical Outcome Prediction by MicroRNAs in Human Cancer: A Systematic Review

Background
MicroRNA (miR) expression may have prognostic value for many types of cancers. However, the miR literature comprises many small studies. We systematically reviewed and synthesized the evidence.

. ........The median hazard ratio for poor outcome in externally validated studies was 2.52 (IQR = 2.26–5.40). For all classifier miRs in studies that evaluated overall survival across diverse malignancies, the miRs most frequently associated with poor outcome after accounting for differences in miR assessment due to platform type were let-7 (decreased expression in patients with cancer) and miR 21 (increased expression).

Conclusions MiR classifiers show promising prognostic associations with major cancer outcomes and specific miRs are consistently identified across diverse studies and platforms. These types of classifiers require careful external validation in large groups of cancer patients that have adequate protection from bias.