Differential miRNA Expression in Neuroendocrine Tumours of the Lung

Background: Four neuroendocrine subtypes are distinguishable which differ in the extent of differentiation and grade of biological aggressiveness. Therefore the differentiation of atypical from typical carcinoids or large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas and small cell carcinomas is essential for treatment options and prognosis. However, for pathologists it is often a challenge to establish a faithful differenzial diagnosis with an accurate prognosis which is restricted in terms of limited specificity of immunohistochemical markers and possible artifacts. Thus we investigated three types of miRNAs as an additional…