Objective To explore the expressions of miR-96 and miR-103 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and their relation with prognosis.

Methods We selected 122 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma as the observation subjects. The expression levels of miR-96 and miR-103 were detected, and univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to analyze the risk factors of median survival time of hepatocellular carcinoma patients and to establish a predictive model.

Results The relative expression levels of miR-96 and miR-103 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues were significantly higher than those in paracancerous tissues; the expression of miR-96 and miR-103 in HCC were correlated with tumor diameter, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage and degree of differentiation(all P < 0.05). All cases were followed up for 60 months, and the median survival time was 37.8 months. The expression of miR-96 and miR-103 in HCC were correlated with tumor diameter, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage and differentiation, but not with sex, age or liver cirrhosis. Multivariate analysis showed that TNM stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ, poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, high expression of miR-96 and miR-103 were independent risk factors for median survival time of patients with primary hepatic carcinoma.

Conclusion The high expression of miR-96 and miR-103 in liver cancer tissues are the independent influence factors of poor prognosis in primary hepatic carcinoma patients and could be used as the indexes of prognostic evaluation.