Pancreatic cancer is a disease with increasing incidence and high (and nearly unchanged) lethality that is caused mainly due to its late diagnosis. Risk factors for neoplastic transformation are especially chronic pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus, but also obesity and smoking. The search for suitable early markers becomes a key element of research in this area. Such markers could be microRNAs, short single-stranded RNA molecules functioning as regulators of translation. This article serves as a review of contemporary evidence of microRNA in diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: diabetes mellitus - miRNA - pancreatic cancer - chronic pancreatitis..