miR-224 is an early-stage biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma with miR-224 and miR-125b as prognostic biomarkers.

The aim was to systematically investigate the miRNA biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A systematic review and meta-analysis of miRNA expression in HCC were performed.  A total of 4903 cases from 30 original studies were comprehensively analyzed. The sensitivity and specificity of miR-224 in discriminating early-stage HCC patients from benign lesion patients were 0.868 and 0.792, which were superior to α-fetoprotein. Combined miR-224 with α-fetoprotein, the sensitivity and specificity were increased to 0.882 and 0.808. Prognostic survival analysis showed low expression of miR-125b and high expression of miR-224 were associated with poor prognosis. miR-224 had a prominent diagnostic efficiency in early-stage HCC, with miR-224 and miR-125b being valuable in the prognostic diagnosis.