Abstract
Eg5 (kinesin spindle protein) plays an essential role in mitosis. Inhibition of Eg5 function results in cell cycle arrest at mitosis, which leads to cell death. To date, Eg5 expression and its prognostic significance have not been studied in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, 26 freshly frozen HCC tissue samples and matched peritumoral tissue samples were evaluated with a one-step qPCR test and immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis was conducted on 156 HCC samples to investigate the relationships among Eg5 expression, clinicopathological factors, and prognosis. Eg5 mRNA and protein expression levels were significantly higher in HCC tissues relative to matched noncancerous tissues (p < 0.05). High Eg5 protein expression was significantly related to liver cirrhosis (p = 0.038) and TNM stage (p = 0.008). Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses revealed that Eg5 overexpression (p = 0.001), liver cirrhosis (p = 0.009), and TNM stage (p = 0.025) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. These findings indicate that Eg5 expression can be used as a biomarker of poor prognosis and as a novel therapeutic target for HCC.
Highlights
Liver cancer, especially hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer and shows the third highest mortality rate in cancer patients [1, 2]
When comparing Eg5 expression in cancerous and noncancerous tissues, we found that Eg5 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the HCC tissues than in the normal tissues
We studied Eg5 expression in the HCC patient samples using IHC with a tissue microarray (TMA) (156 HCC samples, 69 matched peritumoral samples, and 74 benign liver cancer tissue samples)
Summary
Liver cancer, especially hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer and shows the third highest mortality rate in cancer patients [1, 2]. Current treatments for liver cancer are varied and include surgery, targeted therapy, interventional radiology, and traditional treatment. Numberless efforts have been made to find out reliable prognostic biomarkers for HCC, and corresponding targeted drug therapy has shown an association with a favorable HCC prognosis. These markers include angiogenesis-related factors (e.g., VEGF, PDGF) [6, 7], epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) [8], and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) [9]. It is necessary to make efforts to find further high-quality HCC prognostic markers
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