nm23-H1 expression and disease recurrence after surgical resection of small hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
The nm23-H1 gene is thought to act as a metastasis-suppressor gene. This study investigates the relationship between nm23-H1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and intrahepatic tumor recurrence after surgical resection of small hepatocellular carcinoma.


METHODS
Seventeen cirrhotic patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma < 5 cm underwent surgical resection. In 7 patients, the neoplasm recurred after a 12-month median follow-up, whereas the other 10 patients were free of disease after a 30-month median follow-up. Both groups were similar according to age, sex, etiology, status of the underlying liver, tumor size, and other pathological characteristics of the neoplasm. nm23-H1 mRNA levels were assessed in matched tumor and surrounding cirrhotic liver samples by Northern blot hybridization using a 900-base pair probe, which is a BamHI fragment of pnm23-H1 recombinant complementary DNA clone encoding the nm23-H1 human gene.


RESULTS
Eight of the 10 patients without disease recurrence during follow-up showed nm23-H1 overexpression with an increase ranging between three- and 45-fold when compared with the nontumoral surrounding liver. Only 1 of the 7 patients with tumor recurrence showed higher nm23-H1 mRNA levels in the tumor than in the nonneoplastic sample (P = 0.013).


CONCLUSIONS
nm23 mRNA overexpression in small solitary hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with a lower recurrence rate after surgical resection, suggesting that this gene may participate in the metastatic dissemination of this neoplasm.
Liver Unit, Hospital Clínic i Provincial, University of Barcelona, Spain.
L
L
Boix
J
J
Bruix
E
E
Campo
M
M
Sole
A
A
Castells
J
J
Fuster
F
F
Rivera
A
A
Cardesa
J
J
Rodes
D000368:Aged; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014157:Transcription Factors; C517938:NME1 protein, human; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins