Identification of microRNA‐96‐5p as a postoperative, prognostic microRNA predictor in nonviral hepatocellular carcinoma

Aim The microRNA (miR) clusters miR‐183/96/182 and miR‐217/216a/216b are significantly upregulated in nonviral hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC‐HCC). Here, we investigate the impact of each member of these clusters on the clinical outcome of NBNC‐HCC and analyze the antitumor effects of miR‐96‐5p. Methods The association between recurrence‐free survival of 111 NBNC‐HCC patients and the levels of miR‐183‐5p, miR‐96‐5p, miR‐182‐5p, miR‐217‐5p, miR‐216a‐5p, and miR‐216b‐5p in tumor and adjacent tissues was investigated. The impact of miR‐96‐5p on apoptosis and invasion of a hepatoma cell line, HepG2, was investigated by cell counting, Transwell assay, and flow cytometry, respectively. Results MicroRNA‐183‐5p, miR‐96‐5p, miR‐182‐5p, miR‐217‐5p, and miR‐216b‐5p were significantly upregulated in tumor tissues compared to the adjacent tissues (p = 0.0005, p = 0.0030, p = 0.0002, p = 0.0011, and p = 0.0288, respectively). By multivariate Cox regression analysis, high tumor/adjacent ratios of miR‐182‐5p (p = 0.007) and miR‐217‐5p (p = 0.008) were associated with poor recurrence‐free survival. In contrast, a low tumor/adjacent ratio of miR‐96‐5p (p