The Role of miR-34a in Predicting the Efficacy of Immunotherapy in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is an aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis. Despite the successful use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of cancer, the lack of reliable predictors of response and toxicity leads to premature discontinuation of therapy in some patients due to disease progression or development of adverse events. The study of exosomal microRNAs revealed that miR-34a may serve as a marker of response to therapy: its level increased in patients with positive response to ICI (0.47 ± 0.16 vs. 0.08 ± 0.16 before treatment, p = 0.02), while no changes were observed in non-responders. miR-200 family showed no significant differences. Although the data require confirmation in a larger sample, miR-34a is promising for the development of a prognostic panel of markers in immunotherapy for ccRCC.