Abstract: Objective To study the expression and clinical significance of KRAS and BRAF mutations in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and analyze their relationship with disease development. Methods 126 cases of HCC patients treated in our hospital from January 2016 to May 2017 were enrolled in this study. Among them, 62 cases of patients with primary HCC accompanied by extrahepatic metastasis (the study group), 64 cases of patients with focal liver lesions (the control group). All patients were drawn on the day of admission for treatment of fasting 10ml peripheral blood samples from the blood free DNA, the application of KRAS / NRAS gene mutation detection kit, human BRAF gene V600E mutation detection kit KRAS, BRAF gene mutations, The gene mutation rate, mutation clinical features were analyzed. Results In 126 patients, KRAS mutation was found in 15 cases. The mutation rate of KRAS gene with extrahepatic metastasis was 24.2% (15/62), but the rate of non-extrahepatic metastasis was 0.0% (0/64). The mutation rate of KRAS gene in patients with extrahepatic metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients without extrahepatic metastasis, the difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). It is suggested that there is a significant correlation between KRAS gene mutation and extrahepatic metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma. No mutation of BRAF gene was detected in 126 cases. Conclusion There was a significant mutation of KRAS gene in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and a significant increase of KRAS gene mutation rate in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and extrahepatic metastasis. No mutation of BRAF gene was detected or the rate of BRAF gene mutation was lower.

Key words: KRAS gene mutation, BRAF gene mutation, Primary liver cancer