Di Fiore Riccardo, Suleiman Sherif, Pentimalli Francesca, O'Toole Sharon A, O'Leary John J, Ward Mark P, Conlon Neil T, Sabol Maja, Ozretić Petar, Erson-Bensan Ayse Elif, Reed Nicholas, Giordano Antonio, Herrington C Simon, Calleja-Agius Jean
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, MSD 2080 Msida, Malta.
Center for Biotechnology, Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Apr 7;22(8):3822. doi: 10.3390/ijms22083822.
Gynecological cancers pose an important public health issue, with a high incidence among women of all ages. Gynecological cancers such as malignant germ-cell tumors, sex-cord-stromal tumors, uterine sarcomas and carcinosarcomas, gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, vulvar carcinoma and melanoma of the female genital tract, are defined as rare with an annual incidence of <6 per 100,000 women. Rare gynecological cancers (RGCs) are associated with poor prognosis, and given the low incidence of each entity, there is the risk of delayed diagnosis due to clinical inexperience and limited therapeutic options. There has been a growing interest in the field of microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs of ∼22 nucleotides in length, because of their potential to regulate diverse biological processes. miRNAs usually induce mRNA degradation and translational repression by interacting with the 3' untranslated region (3'-UTR) of target mRNAs, as well as other regions and gene promoters, as well as activating translation or regulating transcription under certain conditions. Recent research has revealed the enormous promise of miRNAs for improving the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of all major gynecological cancers. However, to date, only a few studies have been performed on RGCs. In this review, we summarize the data currently available regarding RGCs.
妇科癌症是一个重要的公共卫生问题，在各年龄段女性中发病率都很高。恶性生殖细胞肿瘤、性索间质肿瘤、子宫肉瘤和癌肉瘤、妊娠滋养细胞肿瘤、外阴癌以及女性生殖道黑色素瘤等妇科癌症被定义为罕见癌症，年发病率低于十万分之六。罕见妇科癌症（RGCs）预后较差，而且由于每种实体癌症发病率低，存在因临床经验不足和治疗选择有限而导致诊断延迟的风险。由于其具有调控多种生物学过程的潜力，微小RNA（miRNAs）这一类长度约为22个核苷酸的小型非编码RNA领域受到越来越多的关注。miRNAs通常通过与靶mRNA的3'非翻译区（3'UTR）以及其他区域和基因启动子相互作用来诱导mRNA降解和翻译抑制，并且在某些条件下还能激活翻译或调控转录。最近的研究表明，miRNAs在改善所有主要妇科癌症的诊断、治疗和预后方面具有巨大潜力。然而，迄今为止，针对罕见妇科癌症的研究仅有少数几项。在本综述中，我们总结了目前有关罕见妇科癌症的可用数据。
