Biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma: Current status and future perspectives

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. HCC is highly heterogeneous, both within the tumor and among individuals, which is closely related to the HCC surveillance, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response. With the advances of next-generation sequencing, the genomic landscape of HCC has been identified which vastly improves our understanding of genetic and epigenetic changes and their interaction during HCC development. In particular, gene mutations, epigenetic modifications, aberrant expression of coding and non-coding RNAs have been extensively explored and many of them are considered as biomarkers for HCC. Most recently, the gut microbiome has been proposed as potential non-invasive biomarkers for HCC diagnosis. In this review, we summarize the current development of HCC biomarkers studies and provide insights on further steps towards precision medicine of HCC.