Circulating Histones to Detect and Monitor the Progression of Cancer.

Liquid biopsies have emerged as a minimally invasive cancer detection and monitoring method, which could identify cancer-related alterations in nucleosome or histone levels and modifications in blood, saliva, and urine. Histones, the core component of the nucleosome, are essential for chromatin compaction and gene expression modulation. Increasing evidence suggests that circulating histones and histone complexes, originating from cell death or immune cell activation, could act as promising biomarkers for cancer detection and management.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in microRNA Genes and Colorectal Cancer Risk and Prognosis.

There is growing interest in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes of microRNAs (miRNAs), which could be associated with susceptibility to colorectal cancer (CRC) and therefore for prognosis of the disease and/or treatment response. Moreover, these miRNAs-SNPs could serve as new, low-invasive biomarkers for early detection of CRC. In the present article, we performed a thorough review of different SNPs, which were investigated for a correlation with the CRC risk, prognosis, and treatment response.

New Circulating Circular RNAs with Diagnostic and Prognostic Potential in Advanced Colorectal Cancer.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a group of special endogenous long non-coding RNAs which are highly stable in the circulation, and, thus, more suitable as new biomarkers of colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of our study was to explore the plasma expression levels of four circRNAs: has_circ_0001445, hsa_circ_0003028, hsa_circ_0007915 and hsa_circ_0008717 in patients with CRC and to evaluate their associations with clinicopathological characteristics and the clinical outcome of the patients. CircRNAs were extracted from patients' plasma obtained prior to chemotherapy.

RIPK3 expression as a potential predictive and prognostic marker in metastatic colon cancer.

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the primary causes of cancer-related deaths and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) therapy remains the cornerstone of treatment in these patients. Resistance to 5-FU represents a major obstacle; therefore, finding new predictive and prognostic markers is crucial for improvement of patient outcomes. Recently a new type of programmed cell death was discovered-necroptosis, which depends on receptor interacting protein 3 (RIPK3).