Integrative molecular bioinformatics study of human adrenocortical tumors

The key genetic events involved in adrenocortical cancer pathogenesis remain incompletely understood. Zsofia Tombol and colleagues applied a combined microRNA and mRNA expression profile to identify mIR and/or gene sets that distinguish benign adrenocortical adenomas from carcinomas (ACC). They found that expression of miR-184 and miR-503 was significantly higher, whereas miR-511 and miR-214 significantly lower in ACCs than in other groups, and that a combination of two of these, mIR-511 and mIR503, was sufficient to provide diagnostic discrimination. Moreover, the expression profiles pointed to a possible dysfunction of the G2/M cell cycle checkpoint in ACC pathogenesis. Endocrine-Related Cancer, DOI:10.1677/ERC-09-0096