Use of Cytokeratin-19 Concentration to Assess Early Recurrence and Prognosis of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma following Radical Resection in Patients with a Low Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Concentration.

Abstract

Cytokeratin 19 (CK-19) is a prognostic indicator of recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following radical resection. To investigate the role of CK-19 in assessment of early recurrence and prognosis in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC following radical resection. In total, 235 patients with HBV-related HCC (age, 15-82 years; mean age, 54 ± 10 years) undergoing radical resection were screened for inclusion from January 2005 to December 2010. Malignant tissues and adjacent non-malignant tissues were sampled during surgery, and CK-19 and Ki-67 expression was determined by tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry. CK-19 mRNA levels in 30 randomly selected frozen HCC specimens were examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction from January 2011 to June 2011. Correlations of CK-19 and Ki-67 expression with tumor recurrence, metastasis, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed. Elevated CK-19 expression was correlated with early recurrence (P = 0.001), shorter DFS (P = 0.001), and reduced OS (P = 0.010). CK-19 expression was correlated with the Ki-67 index (P = 0.037), histological differentiation (P = 0.016), focal number (P = 0.044), and blood vessel tumor embolism (P = 0.002). Patients with metastasis within 1 year exhibited stronger CK-19 expression than did patients without metastasis (P < 0.05). Furthermore, early recurrence was associated with elevated CK-19 mRNA levels (χ2 = 5.761, P = 0.016).When confirmed by a low alpha-fetoprotein concentration (<400 μg/L), CK-19 expression in surgical biopsy specimens taken from patients with HCC during radical resection is an additional valuable indicator of early recurrence, distant metastasis, and poor prognosis in HBV-positive patients.

• Authors: Zu-Sen Wang, Wei-Dong Guo, Li-Qun Wu, Xin Yi, Chao Geng, Yu-Jun Li, Ru-Yong Yao
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 10 Issue 11 Pg. e0142727 ( 2015) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 26588210 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• Keratin-19
• alpha-Fetoproteins

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• Carcinoma, Hepatocellular (blood, pathology, surgery, virology)
• Disease-Free Survival
• Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
• Hepatitis B virus (pathogenicity)
• Humans
• Keratin-19 (blood)
• Liver Neoplasms (blood, pathology, surgery, virology)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Metastasis
• Neoplasm Recurrence, Local (blood, pathology, surgery)
• Prognosis
• alpha-Fetoproteins (genetics)