Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Methyltransferase Like 13 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Bioinformatics Analysis

Background/Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the cancers with the highest incidence and mortality rates. This study aims to explore the diagnostic and prognostic utility of methyltransferase like 13 (METTL13) in patients with HCC via bioinformatics analysis. Materials and Methods: We obtained mRNA data of HCC from the database of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), drawing survival curve by R 4.2.1 software. Cox regression analysis was conducted based on tumor stage and METTL13 expression. The GSE114564 dataset was chosen from the Gene Expression Omnibus. The differences in serum METTL13 levels between the groups of early HCC (eHCC) and non-cancer controls were evaluated. Using a receiver operating characteristic curve, we calculated the area under the curve (AUC) of serum METTL13 for diagnosing eHCC. Results: A total of 225 cases with HCC were screened from TCGA, and 29 cases were normal controls. The results showed that the METTL13 expression in the HCC group was higher than that in the normal controls (P < .001). The univariate [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.895, P = .006] and multivariate Cox regression (HR = 1.702, P = .037) analyses showed that high METTL13 expression reduced overall survival in HCC. Serum METTL13 levels were higher in the eHCC group than in the non-cancer controls (P = .008). The optimum AUC for predicting eHCC by serum METTL13 was 0.7091. Conclusion: Serum METTL13 has a moderate diagnostic value for eHCC. High METTL13 expression is correlated with a worse prognosis in patients with HCC. Methyltransferase like 13 possesses the potential to be a novel biomarker for HCC.