الفهرس 
Hepatocellular CarcinomaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently the fifth most common solid tumor worldwide; its burden has been increasing in Egypt. miRNA-148a, is a hepato- specific miRNA, was found down-regulated in the majority of HCC patients.
This study aimed to evaluate the role of miRNA-148a as a dependable, non-invasive biochemical marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
This case-control study included 64 subjects at Theodor Bilharz Research Institute (TBRI): 34 HCC patients, 20 chronic HCV patients, and 10 apparently healthy volunteers.
All included subjects were subjected to
- Full history and clinical examination.
Radiological investigations:
a) Abdominal ultrasonography U/S to assess hepatic focal lesions, liver cirrhosis, hepatosplenomegaly and presence of ascites.
b) Computed tomography (CT) scan abdomen for HCC patients
Laboratory Investigations:
a) Routine liver function tests.
b) Complete blood count (CBC).
c) Serum alpha fetoprotein
d) Hepatitis markers: HCV Ab and HBsAg
Molecular genetic studies
miRNA-148a expression level in the serum was assessed by quantitative reverse-transcription real time PCR (qRT-PCR)
There was highly statistically significant difference between groups according to AFP, AST, ALT, Hb and platelets (p<0.001); (82.4%) of HCC patients were positive for HCV; (50%) was positive for vascular invasion. Less than half of the patients had T2 and T4; TNM stage III was found in 50% of HCC patients and mostly the tumor size was ≤5 cm (76.5%) of HCC patients. There was high statistically significant difference between groups according to the miRNA-148a expression (p<0.05); with the lowest value in HCC group. There was a positive correlation between serum [miRNA-148a] and AFP (p=0.031), tumor size (p=0.018), primary tumor (T) (p=0.022) and TNM staging (p=0.009) in HCC group and a positive correlation between miRNA-148a expression and age (p=0.05), AFP in HCV group (p=0.038). Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves for early prediction of HCC using miRNA-148a showed the best cut off value was ≤7.331, with sensitivity of 82.4% specificity of 80% in HCC. There was statistically significant difference between the HCC and HCV & control group according to cut-off regarding miRNA-148a (p<0.001).
These findings revealed that miRNA-148a was down regulated in HCC patients, suggesting that it could be used as a potential biological marker for HCC detection and to predict the patient’s prognosis.