MiR-3201 as a Prognostic Blood Biomarker for Curative Treatments in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: Hepatic resection, radiofrequency ablation (RF), and liver transplantation (LT) represent the only available curative treatments for early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Various studies showed that the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate reaches similar to 70% after resection and similar to 60% after RF. Objective: To improve the success rate of curative therapies and consequently the OS, an improvement in patients' selection and management should be pursued. In this regard, microRNAs (miRNAs) can be helpful prognostic biomarkers. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, a miRNA array profiling was performed on 34 HCC blood samples which is collected before therapy (T0), 1 month (T1), and 6 months (T2) after curative treatments (resection and RF) to identify noninvasive biomarker candidates for therapy response and OS. MiRNAs were validated in 80 blood HCC samples using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Patients were divided into complete responder (CR) and partial responder and progressive disease (PRPD). Results: Among the selected miRNAs, miR-3201 is significantly associated with treatment response in the validation phase, showing a 23% reduction (P = .026) in CR compared to PRPD. MiR-3201 was able to distinguish CR from PRPD (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.69, 71% sensitivity, 70% specificity, P = .0036). Furthermore, lower levels of miR-3201 were associated with longer OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.61, P = .0006). Conclusions: Blood miR-3201 could be used as a prognostic biomarker for curative therapy response and OS in HCC.