SOCS-3 is associated with vascular invasion and overall survival in hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Alteration of the suppressor of cytokine signalling-3 (SOCS-3) has been observed in certain human cancers. However, the clinical role of this short-lived protein in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not well established. Therefore, we aimed to explore the potential role of SOCS-3 proteins in HCC.


METHODS
Paraffin embedded sections from 87 HCC patients were included in this study. The expression patterns of SOCS-3 proteins were analysed using immunohistochemistry and the results were correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival of the HCC patients.


RESULTS
The SOCS-3 expression of HCC lesions and the adjacent non-tumourous liver tissues was significantly correlated (p = 0.035), while the SOCS-3 expression in HCC lesions was significantly and positively correlated with vascular invasion and histological grading (p = 0.034 and 0.032, respectively). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the HCC patients with high SOCS-3 expression were associated with a poor overall survival rate in the HCC subgroup with positive vascular invasion (p = 0.014). Furthermore, a multivariate Cox regression model showed that SOCS-3 expression was also a significant determinant of the overall survival for HCC (p = 0.006).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that altered SOCS-3 expression is associated with the overall survival in a subset of HCC patients with positive vascular invasion. Constitutive and altered SOCS-3 expression may have potential roles in a subset of HCC patients.
Yang
Sheau-Fang
SF
Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Yeh
Yao-Tsung
YT
Wang
Shen-Nien
SN
Hung
Sz-Chi
SC
Chen
Wan-Tzu
WT
Huang
Chu-Ho
CH
Chai
Chee-Yin
CY