title: High USP22 expression indicates poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: Ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22) removes ubiquitin from histones, thus regulating gene transcription. The expression frequency and expression levels of USP22 were significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than in normal liver tissues. High USP22 expression in HCC was significantly correlated with clinical stage and tumor grade. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that elevated USP22 expression predicted poorer overall survival and recurrence-free survival. High USP22 expression was also associated with shortened survival time in patients at advanced tumor stages and with high grade HCC. Multivariate analyses revealed that USP22 expression is an independent prognostic parameter in HCC. These findings provide evidence that high USP22 expression might be important in tumor progression and serves as an independent molecular marker for poor HCC prognosis. Thus, USP22 overexpression identifies patients at high risk and represents a novel therapeutic molecular target for this tumor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.|Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.|Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.|Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shengguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.|Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Darby Children's Research Institute, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomlinson
authors.affiliation: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junfei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.|Guangxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine in Liver Injury and Repair, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Songqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011379:Prognosis; D013869:Thiolester Hydrolases / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D043222:Ubiquitin Thiolesterase
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D013869:Thiolester Hydrolases; D043222:Ubiquitin Thiolesterase; C527170:Usp22 protein, human
keywords: cancer biomarker; hepatocellular carcinoma; prognosis; ubiquitin-specific protease 22