Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. HCC is highly heterogeneous, both within the tumor and among individuals, which is closely related to the HCC surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response. With the advances of next-generation sequencing, the genomic landscape of HCC has been identified which vastly improves our understanding of genetic and epigenetic changes and their interaction during HCC development. In particular, gene mutations, epigenetic modifications, aberrant expression of coding and non-coding RNAs have been extensively explored and many of them are considered as biomarkers for HCC. Most recently, the gut microbiome has been proposed as potential non-invasive biomarkers for HCC diagnosis. In this review, we summarize the current development of HCC biomarkers studies and provide insights on further steps towards precision medicine of HCC.

A Five-Gene-Based Prognostic Signature for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is identified as the most frequently occurring primary liver cancer as well as one of the leading reasons for cancer-related death on a global scale ( 1 ). It is known that cirrhosis of the liver is a crucial risk factor for the development of HCC, and this group of patients thus need surveillance for early detection, which is best obtained by measuring alpha-fetoprotein levels and regular ultrasound of the liver ( 2 ).…”

Biomarkers of Oncogenesis, Adipose Tissue Dysfunction and Systemic Inflammation for the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

“…Several different biomarkers have been studied in the last decades in order to improve and even personalize the surveillance of patients at high risk for HCC development [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Promising results have derived from comprehensive approaches that have allowed the detection of a wide spectrum of circulating molecules, including tumor proteins and nucleic acids (i.e., circulating tumor DNA/RNA) derived from the primary tumor [ 35 ], epigenetic biomarkers such as DNA methylation profiles and noncoding RNAs [ 36 , 37 ] and genetic variants recapitulated in polygenic risk scores [ 38 ].…”

Absent in melanoma 1-like (AIM1L) serves as a novel candidate for overall survival in hepatocellular carcinoma

“…Several genetic candidates have been used in HCC surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment responses [8][9][10]. With the development of high-throughput technologies and gene chips, and next-generation sequencing, the genomic pattern of HCC has been determined which greatly improved our understanding of genetic and epigenetic changes and their interaction in the HCC aggressiveness [8,[11][12][13][14].…”

“…Several genetic candidates have been used in HCC surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment responses [8][9][10]. With the development of high-throughput technologies and gene chips, and next-generation sequencing, the genomic pattern of HCC has been determined which greatly improved our understanding of genetic and epigenetic changes and their interaction in the HCC aggressiveness [8,[11][12][13][14]. All these approaches have become fast approaches to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and functional pathways, and led to a dramatic increase in the accessibility of molecular insights at multiple biological levels involved in the HCC development [13,[15][16][17][18].…”