Expression and clinical significance of serine-threonine kinase receptor-related protein in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To detect the expression of serine-threonine kinase receptor-related protein (STRAP) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue microarray, and to investigate the relationship between STRAP expression level and the clinical characteristics of HCC. Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of STRAP in 93 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and the corresponding adjacent normal tissues. The relationship between the expression of STRAP and the clinicopathological features and prognosis was analyzed statistically. Results The expression level of STRAP in HCC was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues. In 9 cases of HCC with vascular invasion, the positive rate of STRAP expression was 66.7%, and all of them were strongly positive. The expression of STRAP in liver cancer tissues was negatively correlated with pathological grade (R=-0.205, P 0.05). Postoperative survival time was related with tumor size (P 0.05). Cox regression analysis indicated that clinical stage was independent risk factors of prognosis. Conclusion STRAP is highly expressed in HCC, and the positive rate of cancer tissue with vascular invasion is very high, indicating that STRAP may be related to the invasion ability of liver cancer. STRAP is negatively correlated with pathological grade, but it has no effect on the prognosis of liver cancer. Clinical stage is an independent risk factor influencing the prognosis of liver cancer. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Serine-threonine kinase receptor-related protein; Prognosis; Immunohistochemistry