The Potential Prognostic and Diagnostic Role of MiRNAs as Novel Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PC) is considered the second most commonly diagnosed malignancy, and the fifth leading cause of cancer related deaths in males worldwide. It is associated with a variety of risk factors as age, family history, race, hormonal change and genetic abnormalities [1,2]. An important prognostic indicator of prostate cancer is the histopathologic grading (Gleason score). Gleason-based grading allows classifying tumors according to their relative degree of differentiation by assigning a score from 1 (most differentiated) to 5 (least differentiated). However, it has been elucidated that tumors with similar histological patterns may provide different clinical outcomes, so Gleason score cannot exactly predict the aggressiveness of the disease although it is a powerful prognostic indicator [3]. prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which is the most widely used biomarker for diagnosis of PC, though it has a low specificity [4]. also, using this marker for screening the population leads to over diagnosis of the patients with consequent overtreatment of indolent PC [5,6]. Therefore, identifying new biomarkers that could identify and differentiate different stages of PC (localized, advanced and metastatic) is highly needed. Abstract