Objective Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have promising potential as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to analyze the clinical significance of serum exosomal miR-320a expression in patients with HCC. Methods A total of 104 patients with HCC, 55 patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), and 50 healthy volunteers were enrolled. Serum exosomal miR-320a levels were measured by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and compared among the groups. The relationships between exosomal miR-320a levels and clinicopathological factors in patients with HCC were also analyzed. Results Serum exosomal miR-320a levels were significantly lower in patients with HCC compared with patients with CLD and healthy controls. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that serum exosomal miR-320a had good diagnostic value for distinguishing between HCC subjects and normal controls. Serum exosomal miR-320a levels were significantly elevated 1 month after surgery in patients with HCC. Moreover, serum exosomal miR-320a downregulation was strongly associated with positive lymph node metastasis, positive vein invasion, advanced TNM stage, and shorter survival. Serum exosomal miR-320a was confirmed as an independent prognostic marker for HCC. Conclusions Collectively, these results indicate that serum exosomal miR-320a might be a potential biomarker for the detection and prognosis of HCC.
Objective This study compared the diagnostic performance of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin (DCP) in early-stage hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HBV-HCC) under different backgrounds. Methods Patients were enrolled and divided in four groups: chronic HBV infection (CHB), liver cirrhosis (LC), early-stage CHB-HCC, and early-stage LC-HCC. Serum AFP and DCP levels were measured. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were applied to compare the diagnostic performance of DCP and AFP for HCC. Results In total, 200 patients were enrolled, including 48, 64, 33, and 55 patients with CHB, LC, CHB-HCC, and LC-HCC, respectively. ROC curve analysis revealed that the AUCs of AFP, DCP, and their combination in differentiating early-stage LC-HCC from LC were 0.776, 0.758, and 0.786, respectively. The values of these markers in discriminating early-stage CHB-HCC from CHB were 0.828, 0.731, and 0.862, respectively. Conclusions DCP was inferior to AFP in differentiating early-stage CHB-HCC from CHB. However, AFP and DCP displayed similar performance in distinguishing early-stage LC-HCC and LC.
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