Clinical pathological impacts of microRNAs in papillary thyroid carcinoma: A crucial review

MicroRNAs (miRNA) deregulation is an important event in the pathogenesis of papillary thyroid carcinoma. The alternations of miRNAs could be measured at the cancer tissue or serum so that the clinical impacts of them in papillary thyroid carcinoma could be studied. Using the approach, miRNA deregulation was reported to be associated with pathological stages in papillary thyroid carcinoma as reflected by the differences in extent of extra-thyroidal invasion, size of the tumour as well as presence of lymph nodes metastases. The most common miRNAs involved in these processes are miRNA-146, miRNA-222 and miRNA-221. Also, miRNA-222 and miRNA-146b deregulation are commonly associated with cancer recurrence in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Additionally, miRNA-146, miRNA-222, and miRNA-221 are the top-regulated miRNAs involved in the pathogenesis confirmed by deep-sequencing and have their function studied in vitro. Targeting these subsets of miRNAs may be useful in management of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.