Cancer is a multifactorial disease that affects millions of people every year and is one of the most common causes of death in the world. The high mortality rate is very often linked to late diagnosis; in fact, nowadays there are a lack of efficient and specific markers for the early diagnosis and prognosis of
cancer. In recent years, the discovery of new diagnostic markers, including
microRNAs (
miRNAs), has been an important turning point for
cancer research.
miRNAs are small, endogenous, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Compelling evidence has showed that many
miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in human
carcinomas and can act with either
tumor-promoting or
tumor-suppressing functions. miR-19a is one of the most investigated
miRNAs, whose dysregulated expression is involved in different types of
tumors and has been potentially associated with the prognosis of
cancer patients. The aim of this review is to investigate the role of miR-19a in
cancer, highlighting its involvement in cell proliferation, cell growth, cell death, tissue invasion and migration, as well as in angiogenesis. On these bases, miR-19a could prove to be truly useful as a potential diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic marker.