Identification of Survival-related microRNAs in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer deaths in Taiwan. HCC normally develops as a consequence of underlying liver disease and is most often associated with cirrhosis. Surgical resection and liver transplantation are current best curative options to treat HCC. However, recurrence or metastasis is quite common in patients who have had a resection and survival rate is 30% to 40% at 5 years postoperatively.

MicroRNAs, small non-coding RNA, act as endogenous RNA interference by post-transcription regulation. Recent studies suggest that microRNAs may act as tumor suppressors or oncogenes and altered microRNA expression levels may play an important role in the cancer initiation and progression. Several studies, including ourselves, have shown that specific microRNAs are aberrantly expressed in malignant HCC tissues compared to normal counterpart. Although many microRNA profiling studies were done to diagnose hepatocarcinogenesis, data about prognostic significances for postsurgical survival are very limited. The main point of this study is to develop a predictive signature for postsurgical survival in HCC patients.