Circular RNA hsa_circ_0000437 may be used as a new indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play an essential role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, the precise role of circRNAs in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC remains unclear. The circRNA circ_0000437 was identified in the microarray dataset GSE166678 and was detected in HCC and paired adjacent tissue and serum samples in both the HCC and control groups by reverse transcription quantitative PCR. The association between circ_0000437 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was investigated. Furthermore, the diagnostic and prognostic values of circ_0000437 were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and Kaplan-Meier curves. Circ_0000437 expression was markedly upregulated in the tumor group compared with the control group and was correlated with tumor node metastasis (TNM) classification, differentiation degree, tumor size, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage (P< 0.05) in both the tumor tissues and serum. Furthermore, poor overall survival (OS) was correlated with high circ_0000437 expression, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of circ_0000437 for the diagnosis of HCC was 0.9281 in the serum. Our findings suggest that circ_0000437 may be used as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with HCC.