Lung cancers account for a huge percentage of death in industrialized countries, 
and hence there is an increasing call for the development of novel treatments. 
These malignancies are caused by a combination of environmental factors, 
principally cigarette smoking and genetic alterations. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a 
recently discovered class of regulatory noncoding small RNAs with a significance 
in numerous biological processes. Strong evidence links miRNA impaired 
expression profiles and pathways to the etiology of several diseases, including 
neoplasia. This paper focuses on the emerging role of miRNA function in lung 
cancer development with particular highlighting on the use of miRNA profiles and 
polymorphisms for the molecular and biological characterization of tumor 
pulmonary growth and progression. Furthermore, we underline the potential 
utility of lung cancer-associated miRNAs as clinical biomarkers with a 
diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic significance and give emphasis to the 
promising novel miRNA-based curative strategies.