72
Views
6
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Prognostic Significance of Neuroepithelial Transforming Protein 1 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

, MD, , MD, , MD & , MS
Pages 163-169 | Received 05 Dec 2009, Accepted 18 Mar 2010, Published online: 30 Jun 2010
 

ABSTRACT

Objective: Recent works have demonstrated that neuroepithelial transforming protein 1 (NET-1) gene expression is associated with proliferation, metastasis, and clinical stages of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To investigate its prognostic significance in HCC, which currently is unknown, the authors examined the correlation between NET-1 expression and prognosis in patients with HCC. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was used to determine NET-1 expression level in 368 paired HCC and normal liver tissue (NLT) specimens. Kaplan–Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the prognosis of HCC. Results: Among 368 specimens of HCC, the positive rate of NET-1 protein expression in HCC tissues was 86.7% (319/368), and the increased NET-1 expression was correlated significantly with high Edmondson–Steiner grade (p = .02) and TNM stage (p = .01). The expression level of NET-1 in HCC tissues was associated with intrahepatic metastasis (p = .008) and portal vein infiltration (p = .007). HCC patients with the moderate–strong NET-1 positive expression had either poorer disease-free survival or poorer overall survival than patients with negative–low positive NET-1 expression (p = .001 and .002, respectively). A multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that NET-1 protein expression (relative risk 5.8; p = .01) was an independent prognostic factor for patients with HCC. Conclusion: Taken together, our study suggests for the first time that NET-1 status may be a new predictor of survival for HCC patients and provides the rationale for developing a novel therapy of targeting NET-1 against this fatal malignancy.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access
  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart
* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.