Objective To understand advances in diagnostic value of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to find a useful tumor marker for early diagnosis of HCC.Method The recent literatures relevant the LncRNA in the HCC were reviewed and summarized.Results The LncRNA could be detected in the blood and urine of the patients by the RNA immunoprecipitation, sequencing technology, gene chip, real-time quantitative PCR, and other techniques. With the rise of RNA sequencing technology, the number of identified LncRNAs had increased rapidly, and the remarkable progress had been made in the field of liver diseases. At present, the LncRNA related to HCC mainly included the urothelial cancer associated 1, highly up-regulated in liver cancer, metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1, HOXA transcript at the distal tip, H19, SPRY4 intronic transcript 1, plasma-cytoma variant translocation gene 1, uc002mbe.2, uc007biz.1, etc., which were stable in the blood or urine and abnormally expressed in the HCC, alone or as a supplement to alpha-fetoprotein could obviously improve the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis of HCC, even increased the sensitivity to 100%.Conclusions LncRNA is specifically expressed in HCC and is expected to be a novel biomarker for early diagnosis of HCC. However, LncRNA has many types, diverse structures, and complex molecular regulation mechanisms. It is very difficult to find a strong combination or combinations to replace or supplement traditional biomarkers and to be clinically useful further efforts. It is believed that with deepening of LncRNA research in HCC, it will have a broader prospect in early screening, diagnosis, and prognosis of HCC.

Citation： LI Jiangpeng, LI Jingdong. Diagnostic value of LncRNAs for hepatocellular carcinoma. CHINESE JOURNAL OF BASES AND CLINICS IN GENERAL SURGERY, 2019, 26(10): 1243-1247. doi: 10.7507/1007-9424.201903073 Copy