Background and study aim: Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are aberrant in cancer patients, so recent research focuses on their use as ‎ideal tumor markers. Our Objectives were to assess levels of plasma miRNAs in HCV-related hepatocellular ‎carcinoma (HCC) and chronic liver diseases (CLD) patients and to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ‎microRNA panels exploring their role as novel biomarkers in their early diagnosis‎‎‎‎‎.
Patients/Material and Methods: ‎‎‎ Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) were performed to assess plasma levels of ‎miRNAs; miR-122-5p, miR-192-5p, miR-106b-5p, miR-34a-5p, miR-195-5p, and miR-199a-5p, chosen ‎from an array step profiling the abundant miRNAs in 70 HCC, 50 CLD, and 50 healthy Egyptian subjects‎‎‎.‎
Results: Increased plasma levels of miRNAs; miR-122-5p, miR-192-5p, miR-106b-5p and miR-34a-5p, was noticed ‎in HCC patients, while miR-195-5p and miR-199a-5p levels were decreased. Diagnostic accuracy of ‎a panel made of the 6-plasma miRNAs was evaluated which showed better performance than individual ‎miRNAs (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.990, 95% CI: 0.943 – 1.000; P < 0.001). A second 2-miRNAs ‎panel (miR-195-5p/miR-192-5p) was created and its diagnostic performance was shown to be of similar ‎accuracy to the 6-miRNAs panel (AUC = 0.978, 95% CI: 0.925 – 0.997; P < 0.001)‎.
Conclusion: The use of a 6-miRNAs panel has high diagnostic accuracy and better performance than individual ‎miRNAs and distinguishes among HCC, CLD, and healthy individuals. MiR-195-5p and miR-192-5p are ‎the best predictors, and their use as a 2-miRNAs panel is recommended with similar performance and lower ‎cost compared to the 6-miRNAs panel‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎.