Importance Of Circulating Microrna-122 For Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Purpose: The main purpose of our study is to research the potential of circulating microRNA-122 (miR-122)as a marker for hepatocellular carcinoma.Materials and Methods: Circulating miR-122 levels were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction in patients with varied stages of hepatocellular carcinoma. In addition, various other laboratory and clinical data of the participants were evaluated in order to observe the correlation between these data and serum miR-122 levels.Results: Serum miR-122 levels were found significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma patients compared to the control group. (median miR-122 (min. - max.); patients: 0.0104 (0-0.262); controls: 0.00187 (0-0.100), p<0.001). For the cut-off value of serum miR-122 levels (0.0038), the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed 67.4% sensitivity and 74.4% specificity in hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis. At this cut-off value, 1-year, 3-year and 5-year overall survival rates were not statistically different between patients with above or below this value.Conclusion: Our results show that only serum miR-122 is not a suitable biomarker for the hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, using other diagnostic indicators together with serum miR-122 may be clinically meaningful for which large-scale studies are warranted.