title: Hepatocellular carcinoma in HCV-infected patients awaiting liver transplantation: genes involved in tumor progression.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. The present study aimed to investigate the genes involved in viral carcinogenesis and tumor progression in liver transplant recipients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HCC. To accomplish this, we performed the analysis of hepatic gene expression in HCV-infected liver recipient patients with stages of disease ranging from early cirrhosis with preserved volume and function to late cirrhosis with diminished volume and function with and without HCC. We found consistent differences between the gene expression patterns in HCV-HCC and those of early HCV-cirrhosis, late HCV cirrhosis, and normal control livers. The expression patterns in HCC were also readily distinguished between early and advanced HCC tumor stages. Moreover, we found different gene expression patterns between early cirrhosis and late cirrhosis. In conclusion, these findings confirm the presence of multiple molecular alterations during HCV-HCC hepatocarcinogenesis and, clinically, indicate the possibility for identifying prognostic factors associated with HCC progression in liver transplant patients waiting for a donor and/or posttransplantation recurrence.
authors.affiliation: Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. 23298, USA.
authors.forename: Valeria R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Mas
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Maluf
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stravitz
authors.forename: Catherine I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Dumur
authors.forename: Bradly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferreira-Gonzalez
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery / Q000821:virology; D018450:Disease Progression; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery / Q000821:virology; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017510:Protein Folding; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta