Recent Progress of microRNA as Colorectal Cancer Clinical Biomarker

Colorectal cancer is the commonest malignancy. Its occurrence, development, diagnosis and prognosis have become a hot topic in current clinical researches. microRNAs (miRNAs) are an extensive class of endogenous, non-coding, short (19-25 nt) RNA molecules and have the extensive adjustment in human life activities. Recent researches have revealed aberrant expression of miRNAs could contribute to the development and progression of colorectal cancer, indicating that miRNAs could be a novel biomarker in clinical early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of colorectal cancer. This review focuses on the recent progress of miRNAs in colorectal cancer, including research progress of miRNA as the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis clinical biomarker of colorectal cancer, regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs in colorectal cancer and broad clinical application prospects of miRNAs as the novel colorectal cancer clinical biomarker.