Immunohistochemical analysis of tumor biological factors in hepatocellular carcinoma: relationship to clinicopathological factors and prognosis after hepatic resection.
BACKGROUND
The relationship between patient prognosis and various tumor biological factors has been reported previously, and prognostic factors of tumor biology may improve predictions of prognosis after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and may contribute to a new staging classification. This study was designed to provide an immunohistochemical analysis of tumor biological factors in patients who underwent hepatectomy for HCC.


METHODS
Factors analyzed included p53 overexpression, microvessel counts, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and expression of nm23. We examined 81 HCCs from patients with chronic liver diseases.


RESULTS
In patients who underwent chemoembolization before surgery, or those a who had confluent multinodular tumor, p53 expression tended to be higher than in patients without chemoembolization (33% vs 11%) or those with a simple nodular tumor (28% vs 10%), but the difference was not statistically significant ( P = 0.051 and P = 0.092, respectively). A lower tumor microvessel count and negative nm23 expression were significantly associated with poor disease-free survival by univariate analysis ( P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). A lower tumor microvessel count was found to be a significant prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survivals (risk ratios, 2.44 and 3.13, respectively; P << 0.05), in addition to tumor size, vascular invasion, and longterm ascites, by Cox's multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Tumor microvessel count appears to be a useful prognostic marker for predicting HCC recurrence and patient survival.
Nanashima
Atsushi
A
Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, 852-8501, Nagasaki, Japan.
Yano
Hiroshi
H
Yamaguchi
Hiroyuki
H
Tanaka
Kenji
K
Shibasaki
Shinichi
S
Sumida
Yorihisa
Y
Sawai
Terumitsu
T
Shindou
Hisakazu
H
Nakagoe
Tohru
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000098:blood supply / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D011379:Prognosis; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D011506:Proteins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C517938:NME1 protein, human; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase