[Focal adhesion kinase mRNA overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma HCC) and correlation thereof with prognosis of HCC].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is involved in the progression of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and whether FAK mRNA expression has prognostic significance for HCC.


METHODS
Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to det4ec the mRNA and protein expression of FAK in 50 specimens of HCC obtained during operation. The correlation between FAK expression and clinicopathologic parameters was.


RESULTS
The mRNA expression of FAK was significantly higher in the HCC specimens than in the corresponding non-cancerous liver tissues (P < 0.001), in the embolism than in the tumor tissue by the emboli of the same specimen (P < 0.05), and in the HCC with embolism than in the HCC without embolism (P = 0.003). Cox regression analysis showed that the FAK mRNA expression was correlated significantly with embolism (P = 0.003) and invasion (P = 0.020). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that FAK expression was an independent prognostic factor for survival.


CONCLUSIONS
FAK plays an important role in HCC progression, especially in vascular invasion and FAK expression has prognostic significance for HCC.
Liver Cancer institute, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Zhou
Z
Yuan
Jia
J
Fan
Zhi-quan
ZQ
Wu
Jian
J
Zhou
Shuang-jian
SJ
Qiu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D051416:Focal Adhesion Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D051416:Focal Adhesion Protein-Tyrosine Kinases