Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the greatest traditional kind of pre-eminent cancer worldwide, which happens mainly in chronic liver disease and cirrhotic patients. The available surveillance strategies for suspected HCC patients include serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and liver imaging have been mainly recommended. However, the sensitivity and selectivity of these diagnostic strategies especially in the early stages of HCC have many obstacles. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that are 18–25 nucleotides in length. Plasma miRNAs may be a promising new biomarker for cancer detection and prognosis in the early stages. Assessment of Plasma MicroRNA-21 (miRNA-21) significance as a noninvasive Hepatocellular carcinoma marker compared with AFP gold standard test to improve HCC early diagnostic power. This is a prospective research project that included 90 patients in total, split into three classes., liver cirrhosis patients (LC) without any malignancies and (HCC) patients in addition to the healthy control group. Patients and controls were subjected to the clinical studies, routine investigations, imaging studies, and detection of plasma miRNA-21 & AFP. miRNA-21 showed a highly significant difference in the 3 studied groups. Control group with LC group, control group with HCC group, and LC group with HCC group P value (P 0.0001, P1 0.0001, P2 0.0001and P3 0.0001) respectively. Also, a highly significant difference was observed between pre-TACE and post-TACE miRNA-21 in the HCC group P value (0.0001). Circulating miRNA-21 may be used as a noninvasive co biomarker with AFP to increase HCC diagnostic accuracy in its early stages.
Highlights
The most common form of primary liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which occurs mainly in chronic liver disease and cirrhotic patients.[1]It progresses with local expansion, intrahepatic spreading, and distant metastases.[2]
Complete blood count (CBC), liver function tests, specific hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing (anti-HCV antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and HCV RNA and viral load by real-time PCR were done for all patients
By comparing between the 3 studied groups as regard HCV antibody (Ab), we found that there was a significant difference in HCV Ab, when compared control group with liver cirrhosis patients (LC) group and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) group P value (p
Summary
The most common form of primary liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which occurs mainly in chronic liver disease and cirrhotic patients.[1]. It progresses with local expansion, intrahepatic spreading, and distant metastases.[2] HCC is the fifth most common tumor worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with over half a million new cases diagnosed each year.[3] Mainly, HCC develops with a well-established chronic liver disease background. The majority of HCC cases occur in Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and aflatoxin B1 exposure are the most common risk factors. In the USA, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and diabetes are the common risk factor for HCC.[4]
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