Microsatellite instability: a review of what the oncologist should know

Kai Li; Haiqing Luo; Lianfang Huang; Hui Luo; Xiao Zhu

doi:10.1186/s12935-019-1091-8

Microsatellite instability: a review of what the oncologist should know

Cancer Cell Int. 2020 Jan 13:20:16. doi: 10.1186/s12935-019-1091-8. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Kai Li^#^{1

2

3}, Haiqing Luo^#³, Lianfang Huang^{1

2}, Hui Luo², Xiao Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ 1Guangdong Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Natural Drugs, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, 524023 China.
² 2The Marine Biomedical Research Institute, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory Zhanjiang, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, 524023 China.
³ 3Cancer Center, The Affiliated Hospital, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, 524023 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The patients with high microsatellite instability (MSI-H)/mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) tumors recently have been reported that can benefit from immunotherapy, and MSI can be used as a genetic instability of a tumor detection index. However, many studies have shown that there are many heterogeneous phenomena in patients with MSI tumors in terms of immunotherapy, prognosis and chemotherapy sensitivity. Here we mainly review the research results of MSI detection methods, the mechanisms of MSI occurrence and its relationship with related tumors, aiming to make a brief analysis of the current research status of MSI and provide comparable reference and guidance value for further research in this field.

Keywords: Cancer; MSI; MSI-H/dMMR; Microsatellite DNA.

Publication types

Review