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

Figure 1 Serum hsa-miR-21-5p level in correlation to Child-Pugh score, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, and underlying etiology. A: Serum hsa-miR-21-5p (miR-21) level and Child-Pugh score: No liver cirrhosis (n = 16), Child-Pugh A (n = 45), Child-Pugh B (n = 27), Child-Pugh C (n = 3), P = 0.7991; B: Serum miR-21 and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system: Stage A (n = 16), stage B (n = 37), stage C (n = 32), stage D (n = 6), P = 0.3947; and C: Serum miR-21 and underlying etiology of the hepatocellular carcinoma: Alcohol abuse (n = 41), viral hepatitis (n = 12), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) (n = 13), hemochromatosis (n = 6), rare or other (n = 19), P = 0.6331. Kruskal-Wallis test and post-hoc Dunn’s test were used for statistical analysis. MiR-21: Hsa-miR-21-5p.