Rosetta Genomics this week announced the publication of data demonstrating the involvement of certain microRNAs in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, in cancers of unknown primary origin.
EMT is the acquisition of migratory, mesenchymal-like properties of epithelial cells, and is often associated with cancer metastasis.
According to the data, which appeared in Clinical & Translational Oncology, Rosetta and collaborators from the University of Ioannina studied the expression of 982 miRNAs in 68 cases of cancer of unknown primary origin.
They found that miR-203 and members of the miR-200 family were "consistently but non-significantly downregulated" in such cancers with the EMT phenotype.
"In view of the consistency of the observed levels of miR200 family expression by EMT status, more sensitive EMT-capturing technologies and larger [cancer of unknown primary origin] cohorts should be studied for further validation of these data," study co-author George Pentheroudakis said in a statement.
Rosetta currently markets an miRNA-based diagnostic for determining the source of cancers of unknown primary origin called the Rosetta Cancer Origin test.