Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of blood miR-145 levels in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment. Methods 72 patients with HCC and 60 healthy persons were recruited in our hospital between January 2013 and December 2015, and blood miR-145 levels were detected by qRT-PCR. The diagnostic performance of serum miR-145 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in predicting prognosis were compared by ROC curve analysis. Results One month after TACE treatment, 16 patients (22.2%) got PR, 13 patients (18.1%) got SD, and 43 patients (59.7%) got PD results; the blood miR-145 level in patients with HCC was (0.59±0.25) , significantly lower than [(1.02±0.28), P < 0.05] in the control, and blood miR-145 level in the HCC group 1 month after TACE was (0.81±0.26) , significantly increased as compared to that before TACE (P< 0.05); the blood miR-145 levels in patients with HCC were related to TNM grades and preoperative serum AFP level (P<0.05); the miR-145 level in patients with PD response was (0.86±0.21) , significantly higher than [(0.62±0.19) or (0.75±0.19), respectively, P<0.05] in patients with PR or SD; at the end of 3 year follow-up, 28 patients (38.9%)died; the 3 annual overall survival rate in HCC patients with high level of miR-14 was 75.6%, significantly higher than 41.9% in patients with low miR-14 level (x²=8.765, P< 0.05); the areas under the ROC of blood miR-145, serum AFP and miR-145 plus AFP in predicting the poor prognosis of patients with HCC were 0.871, 0.851 and 0.942, respectively, with the sensitivity and accuracy of combined prediction being 91.67% and 90.15%, respectively. Conclusion The detection of blood miR-145 might predict the prognosis of patients with HCC after TACE, which needs further investigation.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, miR-145, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Prognosis