Prognostic significance of co-expression of nm23 and p57 protein in hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the unbalance of proliferation and apoptosis and the functions of cell-cycle proteins and apoptotic factor in metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their effect in prognosis.


METHODS
Proliferation index and apoptosis index, as well as seven relatively molecular markers, namely p15, p34, p53, p57, p73, survivin and nm23, were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and TUNEL in HCC tissues and compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues and normal liver tissues. Furthermore, the prognostic significance by follow-up and mutual relationships for each clinicopathologic factor and molecular marker were analysed.


RESULTS
The dysregulation between proliferation and apoptosis and the abnormal expression of seven molecular markers were observed in HCC tissues. The unbalance of proliferation and apoptosis and abnormal expressions of p15, p34, p57 and nm23 were correlated with TNM stage and extrahepatic metastasis. In particular, the abnormal co-expression of nm23/p57 correlated with advanced TNM stage and bigger tumor size and was an independent prognostic factor of HCC.


CONCLUSIONS
The unbalance of proliferation and apoptosis and abnormal expression of cell-cycle proteins promote metastasis of HCC. Moreover, the abnormal co-expression of nm23/p57 may be a useful molecular marker for metastasis and unfavourable prognosis for HCC.
Guo
Hui
H
Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated HospitalThe Second Affiliated Hospital, College Of Medicine of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Department of Oncology, The First People Hospital, Changzhou, Jiangsu Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Kiang Wu Hospital, Macao, China.
Nan
Kejun
K
Hu
Tinghua
T
Meng
Jie
J
Hui
Wentao
W
Zhang
Xiaozhan
X
Qin
Haixia
H
Sui
Chenguang
C