The University of Melbourne, Department of Surgery Austin Health, Studley Road, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia 3084.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2015 Jan 1;20(1):78-104. doi: 10.2741/4299.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rapidly progressing disease that exerts a huge burden on patients and health care systems. Rapid progression and difficulty in detecting early disease are major obstacles in offering potentially curative treatments. Besides the lack of effective chemo- or immunotherapy for advanced disease, there are currently no reliable tumor markers or imaging technologies that can accurately diagnose early HCC or predict disease progression. Since the discovery of microRNA (miRNA) and its involvement in hepatocarcinogenesis, the literature describes their usefulness as potential new biomarkers and treatment targets. Some of these miRNAs can also be found in the systemic circulation. With advances in detection and sequencing technologies, an increasing amount of data demonstrate the possibility of using circulating miRNAs as biomarkers to improve our current management of HCC in a less-invasive manner. This paper will review circulating miRNAs with a known function in HCC, describing their role and function in tumorigenesis. This review discusses their potential use as biomarkers in conjunction with emerging treatments in the diagnosis and targeting of this disease.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是一种进展迅速的疾病，给患者和医疗体系带来了巨大负担。疾病的快速进展和早期诊断的困难是提供潜在治愈性治疗的主要障碍。除了晚期疾病缺乏有效的化疗或免疫治疗外，目前还没有可靠的肿瘤标志物或成像技术可以准确诊断早期 HCC 或预测疾病进展。自发现 microRNA（miRNA）及其在肝癌发生中的作用以来，文献描述了它们作为潜在新的生物标志物和治疗靶点的有用性。其中一些 miRNA 也可以在系统循环中找到。随着检测和测序技术的进步，越来越多的数据表明，使用循环 miRNA 作为生物标志物以非侵入性方式改善我们目前对 HCC 的管理是可能的。本文将综述具有已知 HCC 功能的循环 miRNA，描述它们在肿瘤发生中的作用和功能。本综述讨论了它们作为生物标志物与新兴治疗方法联合用于诊断和靶向该疾病的潜在用途。
