Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, largely due to limited tools for early detection and the asymptomatic nature of early stage disease. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as promising non‐invasive biomarkers because of their high stability in body fluids and disease‐specific expression patterns. In this study, we performed an in silico analysis of serum miRNA expression profiles using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset GSE113740, which included 40 patients with HCC and 10 healthy controls. A total of 257 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified, of which seven (hsa‐miR‐885‐3p, hsa‐miR‐320a, hsa‐miR‐744‐5p, hsa‐miR‐221‐3p, hsa‐miR‐561‐3p, hsa‐miR‐124‐3p, and hsa‐miR‐637) were prioritized based on network metrics, including the number of single‐line regulators (NSR) and transcription factor percentage (TFR) (p < 0.05). The majority have previously been reported as functionally associated with HCC. Meta‐profile analysis across 40 cancer types revealed distinct liver cancer‐specific expression for five of these miRNAs (hsa-miR-885-3p, hsa-miR-320a, hsa-miR-744-5p, has-miR-221-3p, and has-miR-124-3p). Network topology and pathway enrichment highlighted key regulatory hubs and cancer‐related targets. Ultimately, four miRNAs (hsa‐miR‐885‐3p, hsa‐miR‐320a, hsa‐miR‐744‐5p, and hsa‐miR‐124‐3p) emerged as promising diagnostic biomarkers for early HCC detection. Identification of potential microRNA biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma applying bioinformatics approaches startpage: 289 endpage: 293 hepatocellular carcinoma, microRNA, biomarker eng Institut za informacione tehnologije, Univerzitet u Kragujevcu, Srbija application/pdf 10208205 bytes 2025 Goč, Sanja Dobrijević, Zorana Janković, Tamara Janjić, Filip Mitić, Ninoslav Janković, Miroslava http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceProceedings https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:36610 doi:10.46793/ICCBIKG25.288G Identification of potential microRNA biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma applying bioinformatics approaches