title: Potential biomarkers for hepatoblastoma: results from the SIOPEL-3 study.
abstract: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is a rare malignant liver tumour found in infants. Many heterogeneous histological tumour subtypes exist. Although survival rates have improved dramatically in recent years with the use of platinum-based chemotherapy, there still exists a subset of HB that does not respond to treatment. There are currently no tumour biomarkers in use and in this study we aim to evaluate potential biomarkers to aid identification of relapse cases that would otherwise be overlooked by current prognostication. This may identify patients that would benefit from more aggressive therapy and could improve overall survival rates. We used immunohistochemistry to analyse the expression of β-catenin, E-cadherin, Cyclin D1, Ki-67 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) protein in tumours from 91 patients prospectively enroled into the SIOPEL 3 clinical trial. The relationship between these biomarkers and clinicopathologic features and patient survival were statistically analysed. We identified one biomarker, Cyclin D1, which has a correlation with mixed epithelial/mesenchymal HB approaching significance (P = 0.07). Survival analysis using these markers has revealed two potential prognostic indicators; Cyclin D1 and Ki-67 (P = 0.01, 0.01).
authors.affiliation: Children's Cancer Research Group, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. rachel.purcell@otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Purcell
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Childs
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maibach
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Clinton
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: Piotra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Czauderna
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D019938:Cyclin D1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018197:Hepatoblastoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011379:Prognosis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015820:Cadherins; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; D051176:beta Catenin; D019938:Cyclin D1