We conducted an umbrella review which synthetizes the findings of systematic reviews available in the literature that investigate the prognostic role of miRNAs as potential biomarkers in the field of tertiary prevention of head and neck Cancer (HNC). We selected systematic reviews in English related to HNC, with meta-analysis of observational studies that reported quantitative prognostic measures, hazard ratios (HRs), overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS). The methodological quality of the included reviews was assessed by using the AMSTAR-2 tool. The most reported miRNAs were the following: miRNA2, Let7 family and miR17, etc. Four out of six reviews particularly emphasized the link between miRNA21 expression and HNC patients. Recently the cumulative effects of sets of miRNAs have been increasingly studied and might be a stronger predictor of survival than single miRNA.
Keywords: head and neck cancer; miRNAs; prognosis; recurrence; relapse; survival; systematic reviews.