Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 28, 2018; 24(24): 2596-2604
Published online Jun 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i24.2596
Novel serum microRNAs panel on the diagnostic and prognostic implications of hepatocellular carcinoma
Yang An, Song Gao, Wen-Chao Zhao, Bao-An Qiu, Nian-Xin Xia, Peng-Jun Zhang, Zhen-Ping Fan
Yang An, Wen-Chao Zhao, Bao-An Qiu, Nian-Xin Xia, Department of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgey, Navy General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing 100048, China
Song Gao, Peng-Jun Zhang, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Interventional Therapy Department, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing 100142, China
Zhen-Ping Fan, The Liver Disease Center for Cadre Medical Care, Beijing 302 Military Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
Author contributions: An Y, Gao S, Zhang PJ and Fan ZP designed the study; An Y, Gao S, Zhao WC, and Xia NX performed the research; An Y, Gao S, Qiu BA, Zhang PJ, and Fan ZP analyzed the date; An Y and Gao S wrote the paper; Zhang PJ and Fan ZP revised the manuscript for final submission; An Y and Gao S contributed equally to this study; Zhang PJ and Fan ZP are the co-corresponding authors.
Supported by the National Key R & D Program of China, No. 2016YFC0106604;and National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81502591.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute review board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that we have no financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work and that there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in or the review of the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Zhen-Ping Fan, MD, Doctor, The Liver Disease Center for Cadre Medical Care, Beijing 302 Military Hospital, Xi Si Huan Zhong Road 100, Beijing 100039, China. fanzp302@126.com
Telephone: +86-10-66933466 Fax: +86-10-63879735
Received: March 23, 2018
Peer-review started: March 23, 2018
First decision: April 21, 2018
Revised: April 26, 2018
Accepted: May 6, 2018
Article in press: May 6, 2018
Published online: June 28, 2018
Processing time: 94 Days and 23.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Detection, diagnosis, and surgical treatment are the key to the improvement of liver cancer treatment. However, there is little extensive analysis of the dynamic changes and prognostic value of serum microRNAs (miRNAs) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.

Research motivation

miRNAs can be used as useful biomarkers for cancer. With a very poor 5-year survival rate in HCC, markers to assess prognosis or treatment effect are equally important.

Research methods

TaqMan Low Density Array was used to screen in two pooled serum samples respectively from 35 HCC and 35 normal controls, and then the screened miRNAs were validated individually by RT-qPCR in two phases. The selected miRNAs after operation and their prognostic value were also evaluated.

Research results

miR-375, miR-10a, miR-122 and miR-423 were found to be significantly higher in HCC than in controls, and tAUC for the 4-miRNA joint diagnostic panel was 0.995 (95%CI: 0.778-0.934). The four miRNAs were significantly decreased after surgical removal, but still was higher than normal controls.

Research conclusions

The four serum miRNAs (miR-375, miR-10a, miR-122 and miR-423) could potentially serve as novel biomarkers for the diagnostic and prognostic of HCC.

Research perspectives

This study provides an effective and non-invasive detection method for the detection of HCC, however, more samples and the early detection value should be investigated in the future study.