Osteopontin, a single marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with tumor-node-metastasis stage I hepatocellular carcinoma after surgical resection.
OBJECTIVE
Osteopontin (OPN) has been linked to clinical outcomes in several solid tumors. However, it has not been fully evaluated whether OPN could be used as a single marker for the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), particularly in patients of the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage I.


METHODS
A total of 151 patients with HCC who underwent surgical resection were enrolled, including 112 patients of the TNM stage I. OPN expression was evaluated using immunohistochemistry in the tissue microarrays derived from these patients. Immunoreactivity was classified according to the percentage and intensity of staining: negative (-), weak (+) and strong (++). The impact of OPN expression on survival of patients was analyzed.


RESULTS
In total, 65.6% (99 of 151) of HCC tissues expressed OPN. Overall survival in patients of OPN (-) group was significantly higher than those of OPN (+) or OPN (++) group (P = 0.049 and P = 0.001). Interestingly, in patients of the TNM stage I, OPN expression was correlated with the early recurrence after surgical resection (P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that OPN expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and disease-free survival in patients with the TNM stage I HCC (hazard ratio, 2.272, P = 0.014 and 1.982, P = 0.037).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that OPN is commonly expressed in HCC and is a useful marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with the TNM stage I HCC, contributing to determining which individual patient needs adjuvant therapy to prevent the early recurrence after surgical resection.
Chen
Rong-Xin
RX
Liver Cancer Institute and Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; Key Laboratory for Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China.
Xia
Yun-Hong
YH
Cui
Jie-Feng
JF
Xue
Tong-Chun
TC
Ye
Sheng-Long
SL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D002681:China; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D053495:Osteopontin / Q000032:analysis*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
C506895:SPP1 protein, human; D053495:Osteopontin