The elephant in the room: do microRNA-based therapies have a realistic chance of succeeding for brain tumors such as glioblastoma?

It seems quite clear that microRNAs play important roles in neuro-oncology, as they do across perhaps all areas in biology. With recent advances in detecting and quantifying microRNAs in tissue and serum, it appears increasingly likely that microRNAs will be clinically useful as biomarkers for brain tumors and other cancers. Applying microRNAs for treatment of brain tumors poses greater hurdles by far, however, and despite promising in vitro results this may never become a reality. This review fits recent advances into a framework for considering the potential of microRNAs for brain tumor therapy, considering the power of individual microRNAs, delivery issues, and indirect microRNA-based therapies.