Plasma level of metastasis‐associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 is associated with liver damage and predicts development of hepatocellular carcinoma

Recent studies have shown that metastasis‐associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) was overexpressed in many human solid cancers, however, its roles in plasma of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients were unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of plasma MALAT1 levels in HCC patients. Plasma samples were collected from pre‐operative HCC, hepatic disease patients, and healthy controls, and tissue samples from HCC patients and colorectal cancer patients with liver metastasis. Plasma and tissue MALAT1 levels were measured. Plasma MALAT1 levels were progressively and significantly higher in HCC patients than hepatic disease patients, and higher in hepatic disease patients than healthy controls. The expression of MALAT1 in HCC tissue was slightly higher than that in paired non‐cancerous liver tissue, but not significant. The expression of MALAT1 in the non‐cancerous liver tissue of 20 HCC patients was significantly higher than that in normal liver tissue of 13 colorectal cancer patients. In contrast, plasma MALAT1 levels were significantly low in HCC patients with hepatitis B infection, and significantly high in patients with liver damage B or liver cirrhosis. In a receiver–operator curve analysis of HCC and hepatic disease patients, the cut‐off value of plasma MALAT1 was 1.60 and the area under the curve was 0.66. Plasma MALAT1 levels were not correlated with α‐fetoprotein or protein induced by vitamin K absence II, whereas sensitivity and specificity for the detection of HCC with the combination of MALAT1, α‐fetoprotein, and protein induced by vitamin K absence II were 88.6% and 75%, respectively. In conclusion, the plasma MALAT1 level is associated with liver damage, and has clinical utility for predicting development of HCC.