title: Reduced expression of SOCS2 and SOCS6 in hepatocellular carcinoma correlates with aggressive tumor progression and poor prognosis.
abstract: To investigate the clinical significance of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)-2 and SOCS6 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression levels of SOCS2 and SOCS6 mRNA and protein in tumor, para-tumor and normal liver tissues were detected in 106 HCC patients by real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot. According to qRT-PCR and western blot analyses, we first found that both the expression levels of SOCS2 and SOCS6 mRNA and protein in HCC were significantly lower than those in para-tumor (both P < 0.001) and normal liver tissues (both P < 0.001). Then, the correlation analysis showed that both SOCS2 and SOCS6 protein downregulation were significantly correlated with advanced TNM stage (both P < 0.001) and high serum AFP (P = 0.008 and 0.01, respectively). Especially, the reduced expression of SOCS2 more frequently occurred in HCC patients with vascular invasion (P = 0.03), and that of SOCS6 was also associated with tumor recurrence (P = 0.01). Moreover, HCC patients with low expression of SOCS2 and SOCS6 had significantly shorter overall (P = 0.008 and 0.01, respectively) and disease-free survival (both P = 0.01). Furthermore, multivariate analysis showed that both SOCS2 and SOCS6 downregulation were independent prognostic factors of overall (P = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively) and disease-free survival (P = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively) in HCC. Our data demonstrate for the first time that SOCS2 and SOCS6 expression were remarkably reduced in HCC and may be served as potential prognostic markers for patients with this deadly disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Xingchun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yanyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Yongsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D050826:Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C106643:SOCS2 protein, human; C473085:SOCS6 protein, human; D050826:Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling Proteins