Circulating miR-21-5p level has limited prognostic value in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and is influenced by renal function

Table 1 Clinical and laboratory characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma patients and hsa-miR-21-5p expression

		All patients	miR-21 low1	miR-21 high2	P value
Patient number:		91	47	44
Gender (n, %):	Women	17 (18.7%)	7 (14.9%)	10 (22.7%)	0.4231
	Men	74 (81.3%)	40 (85.1%)	34 (77.3%)
Age in yr	mean ± SD	67.91 ± 8.98	69.11 ± 8.84	66.64 ± 9.05	0.1912
Etiology (n, %):	Alcohol abuse	41 (45.1%)	22 (46.8%)	19 (43.2%)	0.7560
	Viral hepatitis	12 (13.2%)	5 (10.6%)	7 (15.9%)
	NASH	13 (14.3%)	8 (17.0%)	5 (11.4%)
	Rare or other cause3	25 (27.5%)	12 (25.5%)	13 (29.5%)
BCLC stage (n, %):	A	16 (17.6%)	7 (14.9%)	9 (20.5%)	0.7787
	B	37 (40.7%)	20 (42.6%)	17 (38.6%)
	C + D	38 (41.8%)	20 (42.6%)	18 (40.9%)
Child-Pugh score (n, %):	No liver cirrhosis	16 (17.6%)	8 (17.0%)	8 (18.2%)	0.7443
	A	45 (49.5%)	25 (53.2%)	20 (45.5%)
	B + C	30 (33.0%)	14 (29.8%)	16 (36.4%)
Treatment (n, %)4:	Therapy naïve	26 (28.6%)	11 (23.4%)	15 (34.1%)	0.3535
	Pretreated	65 (71.4%)	36 (76.6%)	29 (65.9%)
Ascites (n, %):	No ascites	58 (63.7%)	30 (63.8%)	28 (63.6%)	0.9999
	Ascites present	33 (36.3%)	17 (36.2%)	16 (36.4%)
Bilirubin (µmol/L):	mean ± SD	23.38 ± 31.73	24.27 ± 40.47	22.43 ± 18.78	0.7833
AFP (ng/mL):	mean ± SD	4593 ± 20162	540 ± 1533	8922 ± 28481	0.0469
INR5:	mean ± SD	1.076 ± 0.2127	1.034 ± 0.1450	1.122 ± 0.2611	0.0486
Platelets (Gpt/L):	mean ± SD	195.6 ± 118.7	182.7 ± 80.5	209.3 ± 149.0	0.2870
ALAT (μmol/Ls):	mean ± SD	0.7457 ± 0.4460	0.6955 ± 0.3425	0.7993 ± 0.5340	0.2697
ASAT (μmol/Ls):	mean ± SD	1.267 ± 1.041	1.040 ± 0.597	1.510 ± 1.330	0.0307
Hemoglobin (mmol/L):	mean ± SD	7.811 ± 1.254	7.655 ± 1.122	7.977 ± 1.375	0.2230
Creatinine (µmol/L):	mean ± SD	92.92 ± 67.95	102.3 ± 88.46	82.91 ± 33.08	0.1751
Albumin (g/L):	mean ± SD	36.29 ± 6.539	36.47 ± 5.668	36.10 ± 7.420	0.7938

¹miR-21 50% percentile.

²miR-21 > 50% percentile.

³Including hemochromatosis.

⁴Patients with different kind of pretreatments (for example hepatic resection, transarterial chemoembolization, selective internal radiation therapy and sorafenib) were included.

⁵For 30 patients we obtained no exact laboratory value of the International Normalized Ratio (only < 1.5). For these patients, we calculated the International Normalized Ratio based on the Quick. P values were calculated with unpaired t-test, Fisher’s exact test, and χ² test as appropriate. AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; ALAT: Alanine aminotransferase; ASAT: Aspartate aminotransferase; BCLC: Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; INR: International Normalized Ratio; NASH: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; SD: Standard deviation.