Background: Involvements of microRNA-22 (miR-22) in cancer have attracted much attention, but its role in diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the expression level and the prognostic value of miR-22 in HCC patients.Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to evaluate serum level of miR-22 in 108 HCC patients and 67 healthy controls. The relationship between miR-22 expression level and clinicopathologic characteristics was analysed via chi-square test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was built to estimate the diagnostic value of serum miR-22 in HCC.Results: miR-22 expression was significantly down-regulated in HCC compared to that in healthy controls (p < .05). And the low miR-22 expression was significantly associated with vein invasion (p = .002), TNM stage (p = .013) and high serum levels of AFP (α-fetoprotein), ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALP (alkaline phosphatase. miR-22 had a high diagnostic value with area under the curve of 0.866 corresponding with a sensitivity of 89.3% and a specificity of 68.9%, respectively.Conclusion: miR-22 expression was down-regulated in HCC patients. Serum miR-22 might be a novel diagnostic marker in HCC.

中文翻译：

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microRNA-22在肝癌患者中的表达水平及诊断价值。

背景：microRNA-22（miR-22）参与癌症已引起广泛关注，但其在肝细胞癌（HCC）诊断中的作用仍然未知。因此，本研究的目的是探讨miR-22在肝癌患者中的表达水平及预后价值。方法：采用定量实时聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）方法评估miR-22在肝癌患者中的水平。 108例HCC患者和67例健康对照者。通过卡方检验分析了miR-22表达水平与临床病理特征之间的关系。建立了受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线，以评估血清miR-22在肝癌中的诊断价值。结果：与健康对照组相比，肝癌中miR-22的表达显着下调（p <.05）。结论：miR-22表达在HCC患者中表达下调。血清miR-22可能是HCC的新型诊断标志物。结论：miR-22表达在HCC患者中表达下调。血清miR-22可能是HCC的新型诊断标志物。