CMC: Cancer miRNA Census – a list of cancer-related miRNA genes

Abstract

Abstract A growing body of evidence indicates an important role of miRNAs in cancer; however, there is no definitive, convenient-to-use list of cancer-related miRNAs or miRNA genes that may serve as a reference for analyses of miRNAs in cancer. To this end, we created a list of 165 cancer-related miRNA genes called the Cancer miRNA Census (CMC). The list is based on a score, built on various types of functional and genetic evidence for the role of particular miRNAs in cancer, e.g. miRNA–cancer associations reported in databases, associations of miRNAs with cancer hallmarks, or signals of positive selection of genetic alterations in cancer. The presence of well-recognized cancer-related miRNA genes, such as MIR21, MIR155, MIR15A, MIR17 or MIRLET7s, at the top of the CMC ranking directly confirms the accuracy and robustness of the list. Additionally, to verify and indicate the reliability of CMC, we performed a validation of criteria used to build CMC, comparison of CMC with various cancer data (publications and databases), and enrichment analyses of biological pathways and processes such as Gene Ontology or DisGeNET. All validation steps showed a strong association of CMC with cancer/cancer-related processes confirming its usefulness as a reference list of miRNA genes associated with cancer.