This study was designed to explore the expression of B7-H3 in human intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and its association with the clinicopathologic factors. In the current study, the expression of B7-H3 in 45 patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and 8 patients with hepatolithiasis was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, which revealed that B7-H3 was not expressed in hepatolithiatic tissues, but positively expressed in 57.8% (26/45) of the ICC cases. The expression of B7-H3 was significantly associated with lymph node metastases and venous invasion. A positive correlation was also observed between the expression of B7-H3 and MVD, an index for tumor angiogenesis. Further survival analysis indicated that patients with B7-H3 negative expression had higher overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates than those with B7-H3 positive expression. Multivariate analysis revealed that B7-H3 expression was an independent prognostic indicator for poor OS and CSS of ICC patients. Our results suggest that B7-H3 may be a valuable biomarker in determining tumor progression and prognosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. It is also a potential target for antivascular therapy of ICC.
Keywords: B7-H3; angiogenesis; intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; microvessel density; prognosis.
© 2018 APMIS. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.