Abstract: Objective To investigate the prognostic significance of miRNA-26a expression in peripheral
blood in patients with primary liver cancer who were treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization
(TACE). Methods Total of 29 cases with primary liver cancer who underwent TACE (group A), 30 cases
with decompensated cirrhosis (group B) and 30 healthy controls (group C) in our hospital from May 2013
to October 2013 were selected. The expression levels of peripheral plasma miRNA-26a were detected by
real-time quantitative PCR. The changes of miRNA-26a expression in patients with primary liver cancer
(PLC) after TACE treatment were analyzed. The time without disease progression (PFS) and 1, 2 and 3 year
survival rates of PLC patients with different miRNA-26a expression levels were also analyzed. Results The
expression level of miRNA-26a in peripheral blood of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (1.230 ± 0.299)
was lower than those in compensated cirrhosis group (1.897 ± 0.534) and healthy controls (2.427 ± 0.569),
the differences were statistically significant (t = -5.542, -10.058; P < 0.001). The difference of expression
level of miRNA-26a in peripheral blood in patients with primary liver cancer before and after TACE was
statistically significant [(1.230 ± 0.299) vs (2.154 ± 0.371),t = -8.786, P < 0.001]. Patients with PLC
were divided into miRNA-26a high expression group and low expression group according to the median of
miRNA-26a 1.145. PFS in miRNA-26a high expression group [(27.18 ± 4.28) months] was significantly
higher than that in miRNA-26a low expression group [(17.23 ± 9.18) months], the difference was statistically
significant (t = 5.287, P = 0.019). The survival rates of 1, 2 and 3 year in miRNA-26a high expression group
were 92.31%, 76.92% and 61.54%, respectively. The survival rates of 1, 2 and 3 year in miRNA-26a low
expression group were 93.75%, 50.00% and 43.75%, respectively. The difference was statistically significant
(t = 3.885, P = 0.032). Conclusions TACE can improve the expression level of miRNA-26a in peripheral
blood of patients with primary liver cancer, and the expression of miRNA-26a in peripheral blood can be
used to evaluate the prognosis of primary liver cancer.
|