Abstract
Circulating long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to serve as diagnostic or prognosis biomarkers for various disease. We aimed to elucidate the diagnostic efficacy of serum lncRNA SCARNA10 for the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 127 patients with HCC, 55 patients with benign liver disease (BLD), and 99 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled in this study. According to different classifications, the levels of serum SCARNA10 were assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The correlations between serum SCARNA10 and clinicopathological charcaterisstics were further analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under curve (AUC) were utilized to estimate the diagnostic capacity of serum SCARNA10 and its combination with AFP for HCC. The results demonstrated that the levels of serum SCARNA10 were significantly higher in HCC patients than in patients with BLD and healthy controls, and significantly increased in HCC patients with hepatitis B or C infection, or with liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, positive correlations were noted between serum SCARNA10 level and some clinicopathological characteristics, including tumor size, differentiation degrees, tumor stage, vascular invasion, tumor metastasis and complications. ROC analysis revealed that SCARNA10 had a significantly predictive value for HCC, the combination of SCARNA10 and AFP gained the higher accuracy. SCARNA10 retained significant diagnosis capabilities for AFP-negative HCC patients. In summary, lncRNA SCARNA10 may serve as a novel and non-invasive biomarker with relatively high sensitivity and specificity for HCC diagnosis.