title: Increased expression of PRL-1 protein correlates with shortened patient survival in human hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purposes of the current study were to investigate whether overexpression of the PRL-1 is clinically relevant to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and whether expression patterns of PRL-1 in HCC have diagnostic and prognostic value.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry analysis was performed for PRL-1 in 60 HCC samples. The data were correlated with clinicopathological features. The univariate and multivariate survival analyses were also performed to determine their prognostic significance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PRL-1 protein was overexpressed (83%) in HCC as compared with the adjacent normal tissue. PRL-1 expression was not influenced by chronic alcohol exposure or cirrhosis. High expression of PRL-1 was correlated with smoking (p=0.012), cirrhosis (p=0.047) and histological grade (p=0.055). The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that high PRL-1 expression related to a poor survival with statistical significance (I vs. III, p=0.010; II vs. III, p=0.001). Univariate analysis showed that PRL-1 expression was associated with tumour size, stage and PRL-1 score. Multivariate analysis revealed that the PRL-1 protein expression level was an independent factor for overall survival (HR, 5.367; 95% CI, 2.270-12.692; p=0.001). This is the first demonstration that the expression level of PRL-1 is correlated with tumour progression and prognosis in HCC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Along with other results, the PRL-1 protein is a candidate biomarker and a potential target for novel therapies against human HCC progression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Asia University, Wufeng, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: J-W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: J-G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: K-T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: R-M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: J J P
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: W-W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: R-M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / Q000378:metabolism*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C490198:PTP4A1 protein, human; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases