OPN and αvβ3 expression are predictors of disease severity and worse prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 3;9(2):e87930. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087930. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Expressions of OPN and αvβ3 are associated with a poor prognosis in many malignancies. However, their relationship in hepatocellular carcinoma remains unclear. We systematically collected hepatocellular carcinoma tissue samples from 305 patients over 3 years, and analyzed the status of OPN and αvβ3 in hepatocellular carcinoma and correlate expression with patient disease status and survival outcome. Our study results indicated that OPN and αvβ3 are expressed at significantly higher rates in hepatocellular carcinoma compared with adjacent non-tumorous tissue (69.5% vs 18.4%, p<0.01 and 77.4% vs 21.6%, p<0.01, respectively). Both OPN and αvβ3 expression levels are associated with poor prognostic factors, including tumor size, capsular invasion, tumor thrombus of the portal vein, metastasis of the lymph node and clinical staging. Patients expressing OPN and αvβ3 had significantly shorter survival compared with patients negative for protein expression (p<0.01). Multivariate analysis also showed that both OPN and αvβ3 expression are independent prognostic factors for poorer survival in hepatocellular carcinoma. By this study, we conclude that OPN and αvβ3 are negative prognostic predictors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The expressions of both OPN and αvβ3 are associated with worse survival outcome.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / metabolism*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / mortality
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / secondary
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3 / metabolism*
  • Liver / metabolism*
  • Liver Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Liver Neoplasms / mortality
  • Liver Neoplasms / pathology
  • Lymphatic Metastasis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Osteopontin / metabolism*
  • Prognosis
  • Survival Rate
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3
  • Osteopontin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81171441, 81301694, 81371653), the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2012B060300009), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. S2012020010904, 7001663, S2011010004247) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry (No. 20111139). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.