Ali LH, et al. - In hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), researchers evaluated the diagnostic value of circulating miR-215 and squamous cell carcinoma antigen-IgM (SCCA-IgM) as serum biomarkers for HCC. They assessed their diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and predictive values using quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme immunoassay. They enrolled 60 patients with HCV-related HCC, 60 patients with HCV-related liver cirrhosis, and 60 apparently healthy subjects. Relative miR-215 expression levels increased the most in HCC patients vs healthy or diseased controls and serum concentration of SCCA-IgM was significantly higher in HCC group vs the two control groups. For early diagnosis of HCC, cell-free miR-215 and serum SCCA-IgM could be used either as a sole marker or with alpha-fetoprotein.