Abstract:
Objective To investigate the possibility of miR-125b in serum as a novel tumor marker for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the diagnosis value of combined detection of miR-125b and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for HCC.
Methods We detected serum miR-125b expression of 65 cases of HCC patients and 30 cases of healthy controls by real-time quantitative PCR. Moreover, we analyzed the significance of miR-125b and explored the relationship between miR-125b and clinical pathological factors.
Results The level of miRNA-125b was down regulated in serum of HCC patients compared with healthy controls which showed significant differences (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the expression of miRNA-125b has no distinct correlation with sex, age, HbsAg, AFP, ALT and α-GGT, which had no significant differences (P > 0.05). The expression level of miRNA-125b correlated the difference with liver Cirrhosis, tumor size and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages, which were considered significant differences (P < 0.05). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of serum miR-125b for the diagnosis of HCC yielded AUC of 0.917(95%CI: 0.851~0.960, P < 0.001)with 85.9% sensitivity and 93.5% specificity. The ROC curve analysis of combined miR-125b and AFP for HCC detection yielded AUC of 0.951(95%CI: 0.894~0.982, P < 0.001)with 92.9% sensitivity and 93.5% specificity. The ROC curve analysis of serum miR-125b as biomarkers for the group (AFP < 20 μg/L) of HCC yielded AUC of 0.889(95%CI: 0.776~0.957, P < 0.001)with 84.0% sensitivity and 87.1% specificity.
Conclusions Serum miRNA-125b combined with AFP has considerable clinical value for the early diagnosis of primary HCC