Published online Jan 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i1.1
Peer-review started: September 10, 2022
First decision: September 29, 2022
Revised: October 11, 2022
Accepted: November 4, 2022
Article in press: November 4, 2022
Published online: January 7, 2023
Processing time: 115 Days and 15.4 Hours
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies of the digestive tract, with the annual incidence and mortality increasing consistently. Oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy is a preferred therapeutic regimen for patients with advanced CRC. However, most patients will inevitably develop resistance to oxaliplatin. Many studies have reported that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs, are extensively involved in cancer progression. Moreover, emerging evidence has revealed that ncRNAs mediate chemoresistance to oxaliplatin by transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, and by epigenetic modification. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms by which ncRNAs regulate the initiation and development of CRC chemoresistance to oxaliplatin. Furthermore, we investigate the clinical application of ncRNAs as promising biomarkers for liquid CRC biopsy. This review provides new insights into overcoming oxaliplatin resistance in CRC by targeting ncRNAs.
Core Tip: Oxaliplatin has served as a first-line chemotherapy option for colorectal cancer (CRC). However, owing to congenital or acquired resistance, treatment failure is common in some patients with CRC. Abundant evidence has revealed that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are extensively involved in cancer progression, including drug resistance. Specifically, ncRNAs mediate resistance to oxaliplatin by mediating drug carriers, tumor microenvironment, resistance-related signaling pathways, and patterns of cell death. Importantly, we investigated the potential and clinical application values of these ncRNAs as liquid biopsy markers for CRC.