Emerging Applications of Circulating MicroRNAs in Breast Cancer Diagnosis: A Review of Recent Advances in Liquid Biopsy, Bioinformatics, and Artificial Intelligence

Breast cancer (BC) remains the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality among women worldwide. Despite significant advances in imaging techniques and molecular pathology, early diagnosis remains a major clinical challenge, particularly for aggressive molecular subtypes. In recent years, circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as promising minimally invasive biomarkers owing to their remarkable stability in biological fluids and their crucial roles in regulating tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic response. Liquid biopsy-based detection of circulating miRNAs offers several advantages over conventional tissue biopsy, including reduced invasiveness, real-time disease monitoring, and the possibility of repeated sampling during treatment.This review summarizes current knowledge regarding the biological functions of circulating miRNAs in breast cancer and discusses recent advances in their diagnostic applications. Furthermore, the role of bioinformatics databases, high-throughput sequencing technologies, and artificial intelligence algorithms in identifying clinically relevant miRNA signatures is highlighted. Public genomic repositories, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and miRBase, together with machine learning techniques, have substantially improved biomarker discovery and molecular classification. Several circulating miRNAs, particularly miR-۲۱, miR-۱۵۵, miR-۱۰b, miR-۳۴a, and the miR-۲۰۰ family, have demonstrated considerable diagnostic potential in recent clinical investigations. Nevertheless, methodological variability, limited multicenter validation, and the lack of standardized analytical workflows remain important barriers to routine clinical implementation. Future integration of multi-omics technologies and explainable artificial intelligence is expected to enhance the clinical utility of circulating miRNAs and facilitate the development of precision oncology strategies for breast cancer management

کلیدواژه ها:

Breast Cancer ، MicroRNA ، Liquid Biopsy ، Biomarkers ، Bioinformatics ، Artificial Intelligence