Department of Clinical Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Huanhuxi Road, Hexi District, Tianjin, 300060, China.
College of Inspection, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
BMC Cancer. 2022 Apr 20;22(1):431. doi: 10.1186/s12885-022-09530-3.
Circulating long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to serve as diagnostic or prognosis biomarkers for various disease. We aimed to elucidate the diagnostic efficacy of serum lncRNA SCARNA10 for the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
In this study, a total of 182 patients with HCC, 105 patients with benign liver disease (BLD), and 149 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. According to different classifications, the levels of serum SCARNA10 were assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The correlations between serum SCARNA10 and clinicopathological characteristics were further analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under curve (AUC) were utilized to estimate the diagnostic capacity of serum SCARNA10 and its combination with AFP for HCC.
The results demonstrated that the levels of serum SCARNA10 were significantly higher in HCC patients than in patients with BLD and healthy controls, and significantly increased in HCC patients with hepatitis B or C infection, or with liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, positive correlations were noted between serum SCARNA10 level and some clinicopathological characteristics, including tumor size, differentiation degrees, tumor stage, vascular invasion, tumor metastasis and complications. ROC analysis revealed that SCARNA10 had a significantly predictive value for HCC (Sensitivity = 0.70, Specificity = 0.77, and AUC = 0.82), the combination of SCARNA10 and AFP gained the higher sensitivity (AUC = 0.92 vs AUC = 0.83, p < 0.01). SCARNA10 retained significant diagnosis capabilities for AFP-negative HCC patients.
In summary, lncRNA SCARNA10 may serve as a novel and non-invasive biomarker with relatively high sensitivity and specificity for HCC diagnosis.
循环长非编码 RNA（lncRNA）已被证明可作为各种疾病的诊断或预后生物标志物。我们旨在阐明血清 lncRNA SCARNA10 对肝细胞癌（HCC）的诊断效能。
本研究共纳入 182 例 HCC 患者、105 例良性肝病（BLD）患者和 149 例健康对照者（HC）。根据不同的分类，采用实时定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）评估血清 SCARNA10 的水平。进一步分析血清 SCARNA10 与临床病理特征的相关性。采用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线和曲线下面积（AUC）评估血清 SCARNA10 及其与 AFP 联合诊断 HCC 的能力。
结果表明，与 BLD 患者和 HC 相比，HCC 患者血清 SCARNA10 水平显著升高，且在乙型或丙型肝炎感染或肝硬化的 HCC 患者中显著升高。此外，血清 SCARNA10 水平与一些临床病理特征呈正相关，包括肿瘤大小、分化程度、肿瘤分期、血管侵犯、肿瘤转移和并发症。ROC 分析显示，SCARNA10 对 HCC 具有显著的预测价值（灵敏度=0.70，特异度=0.77，AUC=0.82），SCARNA10 与 AFP 联合具有更高的灵敏度（AUC=0.92 与 AUC=0.83，p<0.01）。SCARNA10 对 AFP 阴性 HCC 患者仍具有显著的诊断能力。
总之，lncRNA SCARNA10 可能作为一种新型的非侵入性生物标志物，对 HCC 的诊断具有较高的灵敏度和特异性。
