A Preoperative Measurement of Serum MicroRNA-125b May Predict the Presence of Microvascular Invasion in Hepatocellular Carcinomas Patients.
The high recurrence rate remains a major problem that strongly influenced the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who received hepatectomy. The presence of microvascular invasion (MVI) is regarded as the most important risk factor that contributes to the postoperative recurrence. Our previous study has hinted that serum microRNA-125b (miR-125b) was associated with MVI. The aim of the present study was to identify whether serum miR-125b can serve as a biomarker to reliably predict microvascular invasion (MVI) preoperatively. MiR-125b was quantified in 108 HCC patients' serum before they received surgery by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Our results revealed that MVI was associated with relapse free survival (RFS) of postoperative HCC patients; surgical margin width was associated with postoperative RFS in MVI present patients, but not in the patients without MVI. Multivariate analysis revealed that miR-125b, tumor size and AFP were the independent predictive factors associated with MVI in this cohort (P = .001, .001, .003, respectively). The probability of the predictive accuracy of miR-125b was 76.95% (51.32% specificity and 87.50% sensitivity), which was almost equal to the classifier established by combination of AFP and tumor size (78.82% probability, 65.63% specificity and 84.21% sensitivity). Furthermore, the combination of tumor size, AFP and miR-125b yielded a ROC curve area of 86.68% (72.37% specificity and 84.38% sensitivity). Our study indicated that serum miR-125b can be used to predict MVI of HCC patients before they received hepatic resection. Therefore, miR-125b can potentially guide individualized treatment, which helps HCC patients, with or without MVI, to benefit from different surgical approach.
Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology & State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Mei
M
Liu
Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Liming
L
Wang
Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology & State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Hongxia
H
Zhu
Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Weiqi
W
Rong
Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Fan
F
Wu
State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, No. 17, 3rd Section of People's South Road, Chengdu, 610041, P.R. China.
Shufang
S
Liang
Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology & State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, No. 17, 3rd Section of People's South Road, Chengdu, 610041, P.R. China. Electronic address: xuningzhi@cicams.ac.cn.
Ningzhi
N
Xu
Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China. Electronic address: dr.wujx@hotmail.com.
Jianxiong
J
Wu