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Increased expression of PRL-1 protein correlates with shortened patient survival in human hepatocellular carcinoma

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Abstract

Background

The purposes of the current study were to investigate whether overexpression of the PRL-1 is clinically relevant to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and whether expression patterns of PRL-1 in HCC have diagnostic and prognostic value.

Methods

Immunohistochemistry analysis was performed for PRL-1 in 60 HCC samples. The data were correlated with clinicopathological features. The univariate and multivariate survival analyses were also performed to determine their prognostic significance.

Results

PRL-1 protein was overexpressed (83%) in HCC as compared with the adjacent normal tissue. PRL-1 expression was not influenced by chronic alcohol exposure or cirrhosis. High expression of PRL-1 was correlated with smoking (p=0.012), cirrhosis (p=0.047) and histological grade (p=0.055). The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that high PRL-1 expression related to a poor survival with statistical significance (I vs. III, p=0.010; II vs. III, p=0.001). Univariate analysis showed that PRL-1 expression was associated with tumour size, stage and PRL-1 score. Multivariate analysis revealed that the PRL-1 protein expression level was an independent factor for overall survival (HR, 5.367; 95% CI, 2.270–12.692; p=0.001). This is the first demonstration that the expression level of PRL-1 is correlated with tumour progression and prognosis in HCC.

Conclusions

Along with other results, the PRL-1 protein is a candidate biomarker and a potential target for novel therapies against human HCC progression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Asia University, Wufeng, Taichung, 413, Taiwan

    Jeng-Wei Lu & Rouh-Mei Hu

  2. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Asia University, Wufeng, Taichung, 413, Taiwan

    Jeng-Wei Lu, Jeffrey J. P. Tsai & Rouh-Mei Hu

  3. Departments of Medical Research and Laboratory Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, 807, Taiwan

    Jan-Gowth Chang

  4. Department of Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, 500, Taiwan

    Kun-Tu Yeh

  5. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National University of Tainan, 700, Tainan, Taiwan

    Rong-Ming Chen

  6. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Department of Internal Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, 500, Taiwan

    Wei-Wen Su

  7. School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan

    Kun-Tu Yeh & Wei-Wen Su

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  1. Jeng-Wei Lu
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Correspondence to Rouh-Mei Hu.

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Lu, JW., Chang, JG., Yeh, KT. et al. Increased expression of PRL-1 protein correlates with shortened patient survival in human hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Transl Oncol 14, 287–293 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-012-0797-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-012-0797-z

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