Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2018; 24(30): 3313-3329
Published online Aug 14, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i30.3313
MicroRNAs as non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers for gastric cancer: Current insights and future perspectives
Alexander Link, Juozas Kupcinskas
Alexander Link, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg 39120, Germany
Juozas Kupcinskas, Institute for Digestive Research and Department of Gastroenterology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas LT-44307, Lithuania
Author contributions: Link A contributed to conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting, critical revision, editing and final approval of the final version, guarantor of the study; Kupcinskas J contributed to literature review, analysis, drafting, editing and approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Alexander Link, MD, PhD, Academic Research, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke University, Leipziger str. 44, Magdeburg 39120, Germany. alexander.link@med.ovgu.de
Telephone: +49-391-6713745 Fax: +49-391-6713105
Received: April 4, 2018
Peer-review started: April 4, 2018
First decision: May 30, 2018
Revised: June 10, 2018
Accepted: June 28, 2018
Article in press: June 28, 2018
Published online: August 14, 2018
Processing time: 131 Days and 2.7 Hours
Abstract

Non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers may contribute to an early identification of gastric cancer (GC) and improve the clinical management. Unfortunately, no sensitive and specific screening biomarkers are available yet and the currently available approaches are limited by the nature of the disease. GC is a heterogenic disease with various distinct genetic and epigenetic events that occur during the multifactorial cascade of carcinogenesis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are commonly deregulated in gastric mucosa during the Helicobacter pylori infection and in stepwise manner from chronic gastritis, through preneoplastic conditions such as atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia, to early dysplasia and invasive cancer. Identification of miRNAs in blood in 2008 led to a great interest on miRNA-based diagnostic, prognostic biomarkers in GC. In this review, we provide the most recent systematic review on the existing studies related to miRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers for GC. Here, we systematically evaluate 75 studies related to differential expression of circulating miRNAs in GC patients and provide novel view on various heterogenic aspects of the existing data and summarize the methodological differences. Finally, we highlight several important aspects crucial to improve the future translational and clinical research in the field.

Keywords: MicroRNA; Biomarkers; Screening; Stomach; Gastric cancer; Systematic review; Blood; Serum; Plasma

Core tip: Over the past years, large amount of data to microRNAs (miRNAs) in gastric cancer (GC) has been published. We aimed to provide the critical, first of its kind in depth overview of existing studies to the miRNAs diagnostic biomarkers in GC. For this, we systematically reviewed published literature and identified 75 studies related specifically to microRNAs as blood-related non-invasive diagnostic biomarker in GC. This work provides a critical compendium to 106 studied microRNAs and summarizes the technical and methodological differences in reported studies. Furthermore, we highlight several aspects that need careful attention in future studies.