Abstract:Abstract: Objective To identify miRNAs that could be potential prognostic biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients who underwent radical resection. Methods For miRNA target screening, 2 primary HCC and the corresponding liver metastases were screened for miRNA expression by the miRNA Chip analysis. Candidate miRNAs were selected by more than 2-fold difference of expression between metastatic and primary tumors. For miRNA target validation, qRT-PCR was performed for candidate miRNAs on 37 HCC and the matched paracancerous non-tumor tissues, and the correlations of the miRNA levels with the clinicopathological features and survival were analyzed. Results Eight miRNAs (miRNA-27b, 122, 142-5p, 196a, 223, 590-5p, 630, and 944) were selected as candidate miRNAs. Only miR-223 level was significantly associated with tumor stage and mitotic count. When the HCC patients were stratified into high (25 cases) and low (12 cases) miRNA-
223 expression groups, high miRNA-223 expression was associated with advanced T stage, lymphatic metastasis, higher mitotic counts, and higher Ki-67-labeling index. In addition, high miRNA-223 expression was associated with decreased overall survival and tumor-free survival (P < 0.05) during a median followup of 37.9 months [the hazard ratio for recurrence = 16.267 (95% CI: 1.732, 153.789), P = 0.015]. Conclusions High miRNA-223 expression has a significant relation with poor outcome of patients with HCC.