Title:Non Coding RNAs: A New Avenue for the Self-Tailoring of Blood Cancer Treatment
Volume: 18
Issue: 1
Author(s): Gabriella Misso, Mayra Rachele Zarone, Anna Grimaldi, Maria Teresa Di Martino, Angela Lombardi, Hiromichi Kawasaki, Paola Stiuso, Pierfrancesco Tassone, Pierosandro Tagliaferri and Michele Caraglia
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Non coding RNAs, micro-RNAs, long non coding RNAs, multiple myeloma, non hodgkin’s lymphoma, hodgkin’s
lymphoma, leukemias, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, biomarkers.
Abstract: Hematological malignancies, accounting for about 10% of all deaths for cancer, include various
forms of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. At present, hematological malignancies are analyzed
and classified on the basis of morphologic characteristics, cell surface markers, cytogenetic aberrations
and molecular markers. Unfortunately, in most cases, standard criteria are not sufficient for both an
early diagnosis and a complete classification. The latter issue hampers an optimal therapeutic choice for
these patients that often display heterogeneous clinical outcomes or responses to therapy. This heterogeneity
has determined a need for improved methods of analysis and novel markers for diagnosis and
classification of these malignancies. Non coding RNAs act as master regulators of numerous biological
processes including epigenetic response, apoptosis and cell cycle. The recent advances in cancer research
have led to a spreading out in the clinical use of genomic information; in fact, several studies are
investigating the prominent role of both miRNAs and lncRNAs in hematopoietic differentiation and
proliferation, as well as in the development of various hematological malignancies. These investigations
are mainly aimed at researching new therapeutic opportunities that could boost a reduced risk of adverse
events in normal tissues. Moreover, not less important, there is also a growing interest in determining
how ncRNAs are associated with clinical features. In this review we focus on the aberrant ncRNAs expression
in the most common forms of blood cancers, each of which exhibits a unique signature in
comparison to normal counterparts. In addition to their regulatory role and in virtue of the well known
ncRNAs' capacity of modulating signal and pathway networks, herein we discuss both miRNAs' and
lncRNAs' potential as new powerful biomarkers for efficient diagnosis and prediction of response for
patients with hematological malignancies.
