Transforming Growth Factor-β1 as a Predictor for the Development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Nested Case-Controlled Study.
BACKGROUND
Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) reportedly acts as a tumor suppressor in tumorigenesis. However, little is known as to how TGF-β1 concentrations change prior to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in humans. We examined the association between the serum TGF-β1 concentrations and death from HCC to determine whether the serum TGF-β1 can be a predictor of incident HCC.


METHODS
We conducted a nested case-controlled study of participants in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk. We used a conditional logistic regression analysis to estimate the adjusted relative risks (aRRs) of death from HCC according to the serum TGF-β1 concentrations among 1940 participants including 83 patients with HCC and 1857 controls matched for age, sex, and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-antibody seropositivity.


RESULTS
When serum TGF-β1 was modelled as a continuous variable, the aRR of death from HCC associated with a decrement of 7.9ng/mL (one standard deviation) in the serum TGF-β1 concentrations was 2.3 (95% CI 1.7-3.0, P<0.001) for all the subjects. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the serum TGF-β1 concentrations was 0.78 (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our finding suggests that TGF-β1 serves as a predictor for HCC.
Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
Yuko
Y
Watanabe
Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
Akira
A
Iwamura
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Yuichi J
YJ
Shimada
Department of Preventive Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
Kenji
K
Wakai
Public Health, Department of Preventive Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Akiko
A
Tamakoshi
Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan. Electronic address: iso@pbhel.med.osaka-u.ac.jp.
Hiroyasu
H
Iso
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D012306:Risk; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000097:blood*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1
Hepatocellular carcinoma; Nested case-controlled study; Predictor; TGF-β1