Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 26, 2020; 8(16): 3493-3502
Published online Aug 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i16.3493
Value of miR-1271 and glypican-3 in evaluating the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization
Zheng Guo, Jing Wang, Li Li, Rong Liu, Jin Fang, Bin Tie
Zheng Guo, Li Li, Rong Liu, Jin Fang, Bin Tie, Department of Interventional Medicine, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Jing Wang, Emergency Department, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Author contributions: All authors helped to perform the research; Guo Z wrote the manuscript; Wang J performed the procedures; Li L and Liu R analyzed and interpreted the data; Fang J designed the research; Tie B collected the materials and clinical data.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Hospital of Lanzhou University.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent. For full disclosure, the details of the study are published on the home page of Lanzhou University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Tie, MAMS, Attending Doctor, Department of Interventional Medicine, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, No. 1 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China. tie12bin@163.com
Received: May 26, 2020
Peer-review started: May 26, 2020
First decision: June 13, 2020
Revised: June 24, 2020
Accepted: July 23, 2020
Article in press: July 23, 2020
Published online: August 26, 2020
Processing time: 91 Days and 0.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer death, causing about 750000 deaths worldwide every year. Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma will often only receive transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Glypican-3 (GPC3) is one of the most promising serum markers for HCC. Abnormal expression of miRNAs may be involved in the occurrence and development of tumor.

AIM

To explore the value of miR-1271 and GPC3 in evaluating the prognosis of patients with HCC after TACE.

METHODS

From January 2016 to December 2018, 162 patients with advanced HCC who received TACE in our hospital were selected into the cancer group, and 162 patients who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected into the health group. The patients in the HCC group were treated with TACE. The changes of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 in the HCC before and after TACE were analyzed. The expression of serum GPC3 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the expression of circulating miR-1271 was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The methodological results of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of miR-1271 and GPC3 alone and joint detection of HCC were also evaluated.

RESULTS

The level of serum GPC3 in patients with HCC was significantly higher than that in healthy controls. GPC3 levels were increased in both HCC patients and those treated with TACE compared with healthy controls. After TACE, the level of serum GPC3 was significantly lower than that before treatment (P < 0.05), and the level of circulating miR-1271 was significantly higher than that before treatment (P < 0.05). There were 112 cases (69.14%) with remission (complete remission + complete remission + stable disease) and 50 cases (30.86%) with relapse disease progression in HCC patients. After TACE, the miR-1271 level in patients with remission and relapse was lower than that in the healthy group, and the GPC3 level was higher than that in the healthy group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The miR-1271 of relapsed patients was lower than that of remission patients, and the level of GPC3 was higher than that of remission patients, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The sensitivity of combined detection of miR-1271 and GPC3 was significantly higher than that of single detection, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05); while the specificity of the two combined detections was lower than that of the single detection; and the accuracy was slightly higher than that of single detection, but the difference was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

The level of miR-1271 in patients with HCC was significantly increased and the level of GPC3 was decreased after TACE. Monitoring the levels of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 has important clinical reference value for evaluating the prognosis of patients with HCC. The levels of serum GPC3 and circulating miR-1271 may help to determine tumor recurrence, evaluate survival status, and guide the next step of treatment.

Keywords: miR-1271; Glypican-3; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; Tumor recurrence

Core tip: The results of this study show that the serum glypican-3 (GPC3) level in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization is significantly higher than that in the remission group, and miR-1271 is significantly lower. The combined detection of serum GPC3 and miR-1271 has an important clinical reference value for evaluating the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Serum GPC3 and miR-1271 levels can help determine tumor recurrence and prognosis evaluation.