miR-98-5p, miR-130a-3p, and miR-1246 Profiling in Tissue and Liquid Biopsies of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background/Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy, often arising in cirrhosis. Its early non-invasive diagnosis and prognostic assessment remain challenging due to the limited availability of reliable circulating biomarkers, creating the need to establish non-invasive biomarkers that distinguish malignant transformation. This preliminary study aimed to: discover EV-associated miRNAs that differ among healthy subjects, patients with liver cirrhosis, and patients with HCC; validate selected candidates by ddPCR in an independent cohort; compare their abundance in plasma-derived EVs, whole plasma, and paired tumoral/peritumoral tissues; and explore their diagnostic performance for HCC versus cirrhosis and their associations with clinical outcomes.