Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. The development of drug resistance represents a major challenge for the clinical management of patients. In the last years, microRNAs have emerged as critical modulators of anticancer therapy response. Here, we make a critical appraisal of the literature available on the role of miRNAs in the regulation of drug resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We performed a comprehensive annotation of miRNAs expression profiles in chemoresistant versus sensitive NSCLC, of the drug resistance mechanisms tuned up by miRNAs, and of the relative experimental evidence in support of these. Furthermore, we described the pros and cons of experimental approaches used to investigate miRNAs in the context of therapeutic resistance, to highlight potential limitations which should be overcome to translate experimental evidence into practice ultimately improving NSCLC therapy.
Keywords: NSCLC; drug resistance; gene expression; microRNAs; non-small cell lung cancer.