Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park, Australia.
Discipline of Surgery, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia.
Clin Exp Metastasis. 2019 Jun;36(3):291-302. doi: 10.1007/s10585-019-09961-6. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
Circulating microRNAs have been described as head and neck cancer biomarkers in multiple anatomical subsites including the oral cavity, nasopharynx, larynx, salivary glands and the skin. While there is an expanding volume of published literature showing the significance of individual or panels of microRNAs, the clinical validation of candidate biomarkers is lacking. The various methods used to collect, store, process and interpret these microRNAs are likely introducing bias and contributing to the inconsistent results. A systematic scoping review was conducted using PRISMA standards to identify published English literature between 2007 and 2018. Pubmed and EMBASE databases were searched using specific keyword combinations related to head and neck cancer, circulating samples (whole blood, plasma or serum) and microRNA. Following the title and abstract review, two primary authors appraised the articles for their suitability to include in the review based on the detail of methodological descriptions. Thirty suitable articles were identified relating to nasopharyngeal carcinoma, oral cavity, oropharyngeal and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma as well as primary salivary gland malignancies. Comprehensive methodological analysis identified poor reporting of detailed methodology, variations in collection, storage, pre-processing, RNA isolation and relative quantification including normalisation method. We recommend standardising the pre-processing, RNA isolation, normalisation and relative quantitation steps at biomarker discovery phase. Such standardisation would allow for bias minimisation and effective progression into clinical validation phases.
循环 microRNAs 已被描述为包括口腔、鼻咽、喉、唾液腺和皮肤在内的多个解剖部位的头颈部癌症生物标志物。虽然有大量发表的文献表明单个或一组 microRNAs 的重要性，但候选生物标志物的临床验证却缺乏。用于收集、存储、处理和解释这些 microRNAs 的各种方法可能会引入偏差，并导致结果不一致。本研究采用 PRISMA 标准进行了系统的范围综述，以确定 2007 年至 2018 年间发表的英文文献。使用与头颈部癌症、循环样本（全血、血浆或血清）和 microRNA 相关的特定关键字组合，在 Pubmed 和 EMBASE 数据库中进行搜索。在标题和摘要审查之后，两名主要作者根据方法描述的详细程度评估文章是否适合纳入综述。确定了 30 篇合适的文章，涉及鼻咽癌、口腔、口咽和喉鳞状细胞癌以及原发性唾液腺癌。全面的方法学分析确定了详细方法学报告的不足、收集、存储、预处理、RNA 分离和相对定量的变化，包括标准化方法。我们建议在生物标志物发现阶段标准化预处理、RNA 分离、标准化和相对定量步骤。这种标准化将允许最小化偏差，并有效地进入临床验证阶段。
