Novel Insights Into the Role of MicroRNA in Lung Cancer Resistance to Treatment and Targeted Therapy

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors and is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. However, drug resistance induced by chemotherapeutants to lung cancer cells is the primary issue during the chemotherapy of lung cancer. Many mechanisms such as the changes of drug metabolism related genes and signal pathways are involved in chemoresistance. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenetic, non-coding, short-chain and small RNAs that regulate cell growth, apoptosis and signal transduction. There are growing numbers of evidence suggesting that miRNA polymorphisms associate with drug metabolism and resistance. In addition, differentially expressed miRNAs play critical roles in the prediction of the sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents in lung cancer. The recent progress demonstrates that regulation of specific miRNA expression will break novel paths for overcoming lung cancer resistance and the personalized therapy. Together, in this review we have discussed the current understanding of the role of miRNA on drug resistance, and the potential implications of miRNA in lung cancer targeted therapy.