Abstract: Objective To investigate the levels of 7 kinds of miRNA,miRNA7（including miR-21, miR-26a, miR-27a,miR-122,miR-192,miR-223 and miR-801）in serum of patients with hepatoma. And comparing the diagnostic efficacy of miRNA7 with alpha-fetoprotein（AFP） and carcinoembryonic antigen（CEA）in early hepatoma. Methods ENCORI database included 50 normal liver tissues and 370 liver cancer tissues,and the difference of miRNA7 expression levels among different liver tissues was searched. Subsequently,32 healthy subjects were collected as the control group,70 non-cancer patients as the benign liver group, and 75 liver cancer patients as the malignant liver group. The expression levels and positive rates of miRNA7,AFP and CEA in serum of the three groups were compared, as well as the value of single detection and combined detection in the early diagnosis of liver cancer. Results ENCORI database showed that miR-21, miR-26a,miR-27a,miR-122,miR-192 and miR-223 were significantly abnormal in liver cancer tissues compared with normal liver tissues. In 177 subjects,the total relative quantitative value of serum miRNA7 Logit,AFP and CEA expression level and positive detection rate in hepatic malignant group were significantly increased,with compared to healthy control group and benign liver group, the differences were statistically significant（P<0.05）. ROC curve of liver malignant group and control group showed that the AUC value（0.97）of serum miRNA7, AFP and CEA combined detection was significantly higher than that of serum miRNA7,AFP and CEA alone,and the difference was statistically significant（P<0.05）, indicating that the combined detection of those three is beneficial to improve the diagnostic efficiency of early liver cancer. Meanwhile,the ROC curve between malignant and benign groups was analyzed,and the AUC value（0.92）of serum miRNA7,AFP and CEA combined detection was also higher than that alone. There were statistically significant differences between their combined detection with AFP and CEA alone（P<0.05）,but there were no significant difference with miRNA7 alone（P>0.05）. Conclusion Serum miRNA7 is an effective tumor marker for early diagnosis of liver cancer,and its combination with AFP,CEA can improve the clinical diagnostic efficiency of early liver cancer.

Key words: miRNA, Alpha fetoprotein, AFP, Tumor marker, Hepatoma