Despite excellent outcomes with modern multidisciplinary care, clinicians caring for patients with testicular germ cell tumor (TGCTs) face clinical dilemmas across the spectrum of disease. Wrong treatment choices can lead to undertreatment or overtreatment of these young men. Unfortunately the currently available biomarkers alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity to reliably aid in these clinical dilemmas. Thus, a sensitive and specific biomarker is desperately needed. Serum or plasma miRNA, in particular, miR-371a-3p, has shown great promise in discriminating the presence of TGCT and may represent a breakthrough for this disease. In this review we discuss the potential role of miRNA across clinical states of nonseminomatous germ cell tumors. We review their discovery, methods of assay, limitations and future potential. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Andrology. 2022 Nov 14 [Epub ahead of print]
Julian Chavarriaga, Robert J Hamilton
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.