الفهرس 
INTRODUCITONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide. It is the fifth most common malignant disease in men and the eighth most common in women. It is the third most common cause of death from cancer, after lung and stomach cancer.
HCC is associated with liver disease independently of the specific cause of the disease. The major risk factors for HCC are chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus HCV infection, alcoholic cirrhosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, diabetes (metabolic syndrome is the likely risk process) and cirrhosis by itself, of whatever cause.
Diagnostic tests sufficient to establish a diagnosis of HCC is a combined finding of: the classic appearance on one of the imaging modalities that is, a large and/or multifocal hepatic mass with arterial hypervascularity; and elevated serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP), against a background of chronic cirrhotic-stage liver disease. Radiology and/or biopsy are the definitive diagnostic tools. AFP is an adjunctive diagnostic tool. A persistent AFP level of more than 400 ng/mL or a rapid increase in the AFP level may be a useful diagnostic criterion. It is important to distinguish the use of AFP testing as a screening tool from its use as a diagnostic tool.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of noncoding, endogenous, single-stranded RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides in length that are transcribed by RNA polymerase II. Mounting evidence has indicated that lncRNAs play key roles in several physiological and pathological processes by modifying gene expression at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, epigenetic, and translation levels. Many reports have demonstrated that lncRNAs function as potential oncogene or tumour suppressor and thus play vital regulatory roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression.
ZFAS1, a novel lncRNA was found to be increased in multiple cancers, such as gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, contributing to cancer development and progression.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential role of long non-coding RNA ZFAS1 as a novel plasma biomarker for diagnosis of HCC in patients with HCV-related cirrhosis and to study the expression level of long non-coding RNA ZFAS1 in different stages of HCC.