Circulating mRNA Lamin B1 for Detection of Early Stages of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: Hepatocel lular carcinoma (HCC) is the fi fth most common cancer and the thi rd leading cause ofdeath worldwide, causing 600,000 deaths annual ly . In Egypt, HCC accounts for 4.7% of al l l iver diseases.Hospi tal -based studies have reported an overal l increase in the relative frequency of al l l iver cancers in Egyptfrom approximately 4% in 1993 to 7.3% in 2003, more than 95% of which being HCC . Patients diagnosed at anearly stage of HCC have the best prognosis, where resection and t ransplantation achieve the best outcomes inwel l -selected candidates, wi th a 5-year - survival rate of 50 to 70%. In this regard, the present study aimed todemonstrate the potential cl inical importance of plasma levels of ci rculating mRNA of lamin B1 by real -time RTPCR as an early marker of HCC. .Methods: This study was conducted at the Cl inical Pathology Department and the subjects were selected fromDepartment of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Ain Shams Universi ty Hospi tals. It included thi r ty (30)HCC patients of di fferent stages (group I) , they were further divided into 3 stages using BCLC staging system intostage A, B and C, in addi tion to ten (10) cases wi th benign l iver diseases serving as patient cont rols (group II ) andten (10) heal thy age-and sex -matched subjects serving as heal thy cont rols (group III ) .Results: The plasma laminB1 mRNA showed a much bet ter performance to di fferentiate between HCC cases andthe 2 control groups, where i ts sensi tivi ty was 100% and speci fici ty was 90%.Conclusions: Addi tion of plasma lamin B1 mRNA to the cur rent standard tests for diagnosis of HCC as a newdiagnostic and screening tool . This, in turn, could greatly improve the abi l i ty to identi fy such patients and thuscould al low them to benefi t f rom earl ier t reatme nt.