title: Human Endogenous Retroviruses-K (HML-2) Expression Is Correlated with Prognosis and Progress of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
abstract: Background. The association between human endogenous retroviruses-K (HERV-K) (HML-2) and human disease, including a variety of cancers, has been indicated. However, the function of HERV-K (HML-2) in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remains largely unclear.Methods. We detected the expression of HERV-K (HML-2) in 84 HCC tissues and adjacent nontumor tissues by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and analyzed its correlation with the clinical parameters.Result. The HEVR-K level was significantly increased in HCC compared with adjacent normal tissues (P< 0.01) which was proved to be significantly associated with cirrhosis (P< 0.05), tumor differentiation (P< 0.05), and TNM stage (P< 0.05). Moreover, the high expression of HERV-K (HML-2) had a poorer overall survival than patients with lower expression by a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (P< 0.01). The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the level of HERV-K (HML-2) was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival rate of HCC patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves demonstrated the diagnostic accuracy of HERV-K (HML-2) expression in HCC (AUC = 0.729, 74.7% sensitivity, and 67.8% specificity).Conclusions. Our results suggested that upregulation of HERV-K (HML-2) in HCC patients was significantly related to cancer progression and poor outcome, indicating that HERV-K (HML-2) might be a novel candidate prognostic biomarker for HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Weijie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Zhenfei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Hematology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Medical School, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710004, China.
authors.forename: Hailing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Hematology, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Zhisu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Hematology, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Fuling
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0982-0382
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Yufeng
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3924-3803
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D018450:Disease Progression; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D012372:ROC Curve; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012367:RNA, Viral