Tsai Yi-Shan, Huang Ching-I, Tsai Pei-Chien, Yeh Ming-Lun, Huang Chung-Feng, Hsieh Meng-Hsuan, Liu Ta-Wei, Lin Yi-Hung, Liang Po-Cheng, Lin Zu-Yau, Chen Shinn-Cherng, Huang Jee-Fu, Chuang Wan-Long, Dai Chia-Yen, Yu Ming-Lung
Hepatobiliary Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
Faculty of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Apr 16;14(8):2023. doi: 10.3390/cancers14082023.
HCC, a leading cause of cancer-related mortality, is diagnosed at advanced stages. Although antiviral therapy has reduced the risk of HCC among chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients, the risk of HCC remains, thus, highlighting the unmet need for continuous surveillance. Therefore, stable and cost-effective biomarkers, such as circulating microRNAs, must be identified. We aimed to clarify whether serum levels of the Let-7 family can predict HCC risk in patients with CHC using univariate and multivariate Cox’s proportional hazards model. We analyzed the sera of 54 patients with CHC who developed HCC after antiviral therapy and compared the data with those of 173 patients without HCC development. The Let-7 family (except for let-7c) exhibited significant negative correlations with the fibrosis score (r = −0.2736 to −0.34, p = 0.0002 to <0.0001). After Cox’s regression model was used to adjust for age, sex, HCV genotype, and FIB-4 ≥ 3.25, patients with CHC with let-7i median ≥ −1.696 (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.08−0.94, p = 0.0372) in the sustained virologic response (SVR) groups and ≥−1.696 (aHR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.08−0.94, p = 0.0022) in the non-SVR group were less likely to develop HCC. Thus, circulating let-7i can be used for early CHC surveillance in patients with HCC risk after antiviral treatment.
肝癌是癌症相关死亡的主要原因之一，通常在晚期被诊断出来。尽管抗病毒治疗已降低了慢性丙型肝炎（CHC）患者患肝癌的风险，但肝癌风险依然存在，因此凸显了持续监测的未满足需求。所以，必须识别出稳定且具有成本效益的生物标志物，如循环微RNA。我们旨在使用单变量和多变量Cox比例风险模型，阐明Let-7家族的血清水平是否能够预测CHC患者患肝癌的风险。我们分析了54例接受抗病毒治疗后发生肝癌的CHC患者的血清，并将数据与173例未发生肝癌的患者进行比较。Let-7家族（let-7c除外）与纤维化评分呈显著负相关（r = -0.2736至-0.34，p = 0.0002至<0.0001）。在使用Cox回归模型对年龄、性别、HCV基因型和FIB-4≥3.25进行校正后，持续病毒学应答（SVR）组中Let-7i中位数≥-1.696的CHC患者（调整后风险比[aHR]=0.31，95%置信区间：0.08-0.94，p = 0.0372）和非SVR组中Let-7i中位数≥-1.696的患者（aHR = 0.09，95%置信区间：0.08-0.94，p = 0.0022）发生肝癌的可能性较小。因此，循环Let-7i可用于抗病毒治疗后有肝癌风险的CHC患者的早期监测。
