Cancer is the most common cause of death worldwide, and therapies specifically used to target cancer metastasis are severely limited. New strategies targeting cancer metastasis are urgently needed to improve cancer care and increase patient survival. In an attempt to search for targets targeting cancer metastasis, one of our major focuses of research is to develop therapeutic approaches to target cancer metastasis. We identified an important tumor suppressor microRNA, miR-708, to suppress ovarian cancer metastasis mainly through Rap1B. We further demonstrated that GCs (GCs) at low dosage can induce miRNA-708 expression to suppress ovarian cancer metastasis. Since GCs are widely used for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, our findings suggested a repurposing use of GCs for the inhibition of cancer metastasis. Currently, my lab continued to investigate the role of miRNA-708 in different cancer types, including breast cancer, melanoma, and leukemia. We first tried to evaluate the effects of synthetic GCs on breast cancer progression through targeting miR-708. We then tried to understand the underlying mechanism of how cancer cells suppress the expression of this miRNA by epigenetic modifications, and whether combined treatment of GCs with epigenetic therapy can synergistically inhibit tumor growth and distant metastasis. Meanwhile, we also tried to develop therapies to treat cancer patients precisely by using microRNA based cancer therapy.
