Recent research advances in interleukin, microRNA and neuroendocrine tumor biomarkers (Review)

The incidence of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) has been increasing in recent years and most cases are not easily detected in the early stages. The diagnostic modalities used for NETs are currently limited due to the small number of individuals with this type of disease. It is clear that patients exhibit chronic inflammation in the early stages, which leads to corresponding changes in inflammatory factors and in the tumor microenvironment. Among the numerous inflammatory factors, the interleukin (IL)-6 family has a clear association with tumor development and serves a role in most NETs. In addition, the IL-6 family, through various signaling pathways, can influence tumor progression. IL-6 is also involved in the upregulation and suppression of novel biomarkers of NETs. In terms of diagnosis, the specific elevation of inflammatory factors and the alterations in non-coding RNAs for different NETs is of great importance for the early differentiation of tumor types.