The 2025 Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) Annual Meeting was grandly held at the National Convention Center in Beijing. The theme of this conference is "Diversified Cooperation, Creating Miracles of Elimination and Healing", gathering top scholars in the field of liver disease from around the world to conduct in-depth discussions on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of liver disease, and jointly explore new strategies and technologies in the era of precision medicine.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a type of cancer with high incidence rate and high mortality in China and around the world. At present, early diagnosis of liver cancer still faces challenges. Traditional hematological molecular markers, such as alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and abnormal prothrombin (DCP), are widely used in clinical practice. However, there are many factors that affect AFP, which are directly related to tumor volume. Especially, about 30-40% of HCC is AFP negative, resulting in a certain rate of missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis.

At this year’s APASL conference, Peking University People's Hospital and Peking University Institute of Hepatology, together with the research team of Dunwill Medical, shared the latest research results of miRNA7 in the diagnosis of liver cancer. This report is hereby compiled for the benefit of readers.

Clinical Application and Performance of 7 microRNA Combinations in the Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (conference number: PP1196）

Research Background

Previous clinical studies have confirmed that miRNA7 (miR-122, miR-192, miR-21, miR-223, miR-26a, miR-27a, and miR-801) performs better than traditional serological markers in the diagnosis of HCC. This study is based on real-world data to evaluate the diagnostic performance of miRNA7 in practical clinical work, further verifying its clinical value in the diagnosis and monitoring of HCC.

Research Method

This study included patients who visited the Department of Hepatology and Hepatobiliary Surgery between September 2023 and August 2024. A total of 137 cases were included in the analysis, of which 63 cases were diagnosed or relapsed with HCC, and 74 cases were non-HCC or had no residual lesions. Compare the sensitivity and specificity of miRNA7, AFP, and DCP in the diagnosis of HCC through statistical analysis.

Research Finding

Among the 179 patients collected, 79 (44%) tested positive for miRNA7. A total of 137 cases ultimately met the requirements for data analysis. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of miRNA7 for HCC were 73% and 99%, respectively, which were significantly better than AFP (50% and 78%) and DCP (61% and 81%). The AUC value of miRNA7 is 0.86, significantly higher than AFP (AUC=0.64) and DCP (AUC=0.71).

It is worth noting that in AFP negative patients, the sensitivity of miRNA7 still reaches 70%, with an AUC of 0.84, demonstrating excellent diagnostic performance.

In addition, this study presented two typical clinical cases, further validating the application value of miRNA7 in efficacy evaluation and postoperative recurrence monitoring.

This study, based on real-world data, once again demonstrates the outstanding performance of miRNA7 in precision diagnosis and treatment of HCC. Compared with AFP and DCP, miRNA7 exhibits higher sensitivity, specificity, and AUC value, which is particularly helpful for the early diagnosis of AFP negative liver cancer. This breakthrough molecular marker effectively improves the detection rate of early HCC, providing more accurate and reliable auxiliary diagnostic tools for clinical practice, and bringing new opportunities for the full process management of liver cancer.

Author Introduction

Kong Xiangsha, Deputy Chief Technician of Peking University People's Hospital and Peking University Liver Disease Research Institute, Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis

Member of the Liver Disease Basic Medicine and Experimental Diagnosis Assistance Group of the 8th Committee of the Hepatology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association. Published 4 SCI papers as the first author and 5 papers in core journals of Peking University. Invited multiple times to conduct oral or poster exchanges at academic conferences such as AASLD and APASL. Hosted 2 research and development funds for Peking University People's Hospital, participated in multiple research projects including the National Natural Science Foundation, Beijing Natural Science Foundation, and Peking University Medical Interdisciplinary Research Seed Fund; Participated in over 10 national multicenter drug clinical trials.