The Expression of Circulating miR-497 and Metadherin in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Relation to the Tumor Characteristics and Patients' Survival

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance and relationship of miR-497 and metadherin to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor characteristics and patients’ survival. Methods: This study enrolled 120 (60 HCC patients and 60 healthy) subjects. Serum miR-497 and metadherin mRNA relative expression were analyzed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The overall survival (OS) of HCC patients was assessed using the Kaplan–Meier curve and log-rank test. Results: Serum miR-497 showed statistically significant downregulation in HCC patients compared to controls (p < 0.001). Serum metadherin mRNA relative expression was significantly upregulated in HCC patients compared to controls (p < 0.001). Both serum miR-497 and metadherin mRNA expression were significantly associated with the number of tumor foci (p = 0.028 and 0.001, respectively), tumor size (p = 0.022 and <0.001, respectively), nodal metastasis (p = 0.003 and 0.003, respectively), distant metastasis (p = 0.003 and 0.003, respectively), vascular invasion (p = 0.040 and <0.001, respectively), and BCLC staging (p = 0.043 and 0.004, respectively). The overall survival was lower in patients with low miR-497 expression (p = 0.046) and in patients with high metadherin expression (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The expression levels of miR-497 showed downregulation in HCC patients, but metadherin expression showed upregulation. Both markers were inversely related and closely correlated with tumor characteristics and patients’ survival.