Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. It commonly develops on cirrhotic livers, and surveillance programs have therefore been suggested to identify early HCC, at a stage when it remains suitable for surgical therapy and has a better clinical outcome. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the association between MicroRNAs 143, 155 and prediction of HCC in Egyptian patients. Methods: The present study was done on a total number 141 included 47 healthy individuals as control group. Serum samples were obtained from 94 patients with chronic liver disease, divided into two groups: Group (I) included forty-seven patients with HCC, patients with cancers other than HCC or metastatic liver cancer were excluded. Group (II) included forty-seven patients with liver cirrhosis and without any evidence of HCC. Questionnaire was used to collect clinical data while Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), serum HBsAg and anti-HCV were determined using ELISA method. The expression of miRNA was evaluated using real-time quantitative RT-PCR. Abdominal ultrasound scan was also done. Results: The ROC curve analysis revealed that both serum miR-143 and miR-155 could serve as valuable biomarkers for detection of HCC from healthy controls. The highest AUC to differentiate HCC patients from non-HCC was 0.804 for miR-143 and 0.885 for miR-155. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the beneficial role of miR-155 expression might be further evaluated as novel noninvasive diagnostic biomarkers for HCC more thanmiR-143.
Keywords:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Liver Cirrhosis (LC), Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP), Micro RNAs (miRNA).