Investigate potential liquid biopsy biomarkers for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 90% of cases of liver cancer and is one of the most common and lethal malignancies among all cancers. However, the current diagnosis methods for cancer are costly, time-consuming, low-accurate, and invasive. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new accurate, economical, and noninvasive serum biomarkers for early diagnosis and surveillance of HCC. In this project, we investigated clinical information and gene expression data from open-access transcriptomic datasets. After the proposition phase, those results were validated again by the Vietnamese cohort by the RT-qPCR method. Bioinformatics and statistical tests were performed to demonstrate the correlation between the candidate genes’ expression and HCC occurrence. We reported a significant difference in gene expression between non-cancerous tissue and tumor tissues, as well as between cirrhosis and HCC. Furthermore, our investigation indicated a noteworthy genetic alteration during hepatocarcinogenesis which was explained by the correlation of the target genes’ up-regulation and a poor survival outcome and recurrence-free survival in HCC patients. The area under the curve of the gene was much higher than AFP. According to our aforementioned results, CENPM is proposed as a novel biomarker for not only diagnosis but also prognosis. This represents a new hallmark in molecular stratification and therapeutic option for individuals at risk for HCC.