Expression profile reveals novel prognostic biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma

Eye absent homolog 4 (EYA4) has been demonstrated to be down‐regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its biological function and the mechanism in HCC angiogenesis and metastasis remain largely unknown. Herein, we showed that EYA4 expression was frequently low in HCC tissue samples compared with matched adjacent non‐tumourous tissues. In the analysis of 302 HCC specimens, we revealed that decreased expression of EYA4 correlated with tumour differentiation status. Univariate and multivariate analyses identified EYA4 as an independent risk factor for recurrence‐free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) among the 302 patients. Functional assays showed that forced expression of EYA4 suppressed HCC cell migration, invasion and capillary tube formation of endothelial cells in vitro, as well as in vivo tumour angiogenesis and metastasis in a mouse model. Furthermore, mechanism study exhibited that EYA4 could inhibit HCC angiogenesis and metastasis by inhibiting c‐JUN/VEGFA pathway. Together, we provide proof that EYA4 is a novel tumour suppressor in HCC and a new prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in HCC.

Recently, increasing data have suggested that the lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host genes (SNHGs) were aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the association between the prognosis of HCC and their expression remained unclear. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the prognostic significance of lncRNA SNHGs in HCC. We systematically searched Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library for eligible articles published up to February 2024. The prognostic significance of SNHGs in HCC was evaluated by hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Odds ratios (ORs) were used to assess the clinicopathological features of SNHGs. This analysis comprised a total of 25 studies covering 2314 patients with HCC. The findings demonstrated that over-expressed SNHGs were associated with larger tumor size, multiple tumor numbers, poor histologic grade, earlier lymphatic metastasis, vein invasion, advanced tumor stage, portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT), and higher alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, but not with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and cirrhosis. In terms of prognosis, patients with higher SNHG expression were more likely to have shorter overall survival (OS), relapse-free survival (RFS), and disease-free survival (DFS). In conclusion, upregulation of SNHGs expression correlates with shorter OS, RFS, DFS, tumor size and numbers, histologic grade, lymphatic metastasis, vein invasion, tumor stage, PVTT, and AFP level, suggesting that SNHGs may serve as prognostic biomarkers in HCC.

Exosomal microRNAs (exo-miRs) have been promising cancer biomarkers. MiRs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell-derived exosomes (HEX) were analyzed to identify reliable serum biomarkers for HCC. To detect overexpressed miRs in HEX, extracted exosomal small RNAs from human HCC cell lines and normal hepatocytes were sequenced and analyzed. Clinical significance of the overexpressed miRs in HEX was evaluated using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) on serum samples of a validation cohort consisting of 28 healthy individuals, 60 with chronic liver disease, and 90 with HCC. We found 49 significantly overexpressed miRs in HEX compared to a normal hepatocyte. Among them, miR-10b-5p, miR-18a-5p, miR-215-5p, and miR-940 were overexpressed in HCC tissues and also associated with prognosis of HCC in the analysis of a public omics database. qRT-PCR analysis of the four serum exo-miRs in the validation cohort revealed serum exo-miR-10b-5p as a promising biomarker for early-stage HCC with 0.934 area under the curve (AUC) (sensitivity, 90.7%; specificity, 75.0%; cutoff value, 1.8-fold). Overexpression of serum exo-miR-215-5p was found to be significantly associated with poor disease-free survival in patients with HCC. Serum exo-miR-10b-5p is a potential biomarker for early-stage HCC, while serum exo-miR-215-5p can be used as prognostic biomarker for HCC.

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent malignant tumor. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to be abnormally expressed in many tumors and act as crucial regulators in various biological processes. However, the expression and function of the recently identified macrophage-associated lncRNA ELMO1 antisense RNA 1 (ELMO1-AS1) in HCC are unclear.MethodsThe expression of ELMO1-AS1 was determined in HCC tissues and adjacent nontumorous tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to establish the correlation between the expression level and survival of HCC patients in a training set and a validation set, respectively. The overexpression experiments were also conducted to investigate the biological role of ELMO1-AS1 in HCC cells.ResultsWe uncovered that ELMO1-AS1 was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues, and high expression of ELMO1-AS1 is correlated with optimistic treatment outcome suggesting its potential as an independent prognostic biomarker for HCC. It was also found that overexpression of ELMO1-AS1 in HCC cells suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion and engulfment and cell motility 1 (ELMO1) may be a target of ELMO1-AS1.ConclusionOur results suggested that macrophage-associated lncRNA ELMO1-AS1 could be a crucial regulator involved in HCC progression and considered as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

Cell division cycle associated 5 (CDCA5) has been associated with the progression of several types of cancers. However, its possible role and mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. In the present study, immunohistochemical staining and real-time PCR were used to assess CDCA5 protein and mRNA levels in clinical samples. Statistical analysis was performed to explore the clinical correlation between CDCA5 protein expression and clinicopathological features and overall survival in HCC patients. Cell counting and colony formation assays were employed to analyse the effect of CDCA5 on cell proliferation, and flow cytometry was used to study the role of CDCA5 in cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Moreover, subcutaneous xenograft tumour models were implemented to predict the efficacy of targeting CDCA5 in HCC in vivo. We found that CDCA5 expression was significantly higher in HCC tumour tissues, was associated with clinicopathological characteristics, and predicted poor overall survival in HCC patients. Silencing of CDCA5 with small interfering RNA (siRNA) inhibited cell proliferation and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in vitro. The xenograft growth assay revealed that CDCA5 downregulation impeded HCC growth in vivo. Further study indicated that CDCA5 depletion decreased the levels of ERK1/2 and AKT phosphorylation in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, these results indicate that CDCA5 may act as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

Trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27ME3) is a transcription-suppressive histone mark mediated by enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2). We have previously suggested that EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3 plays a critical oncogenic role in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) aggressiveness. However, the direct downstream targets of EZH2-H3K27ME3 and the molecular mechanisms by which regulates HCC pathogenesis remain unclear. In this study, we used chromatin immunoprecipitation together with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) and gene expression profiling by microarray analysis to assess genome-wide chromatin occupancy of H3K27ME3 in HCC cells. We identified that claudin14 (CLDN14) is a potentially direct target for EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3 in HCC. In a large cohort of clinical HCC tissues, we found that low expression of CLDN14 was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage and determined to be an independent predictor of shortened survival of HCC patients. Next, functional experiment demonstrated that depletion of CLDN14 substantially restored EZH2-silenced HCC cells motility and invasive capacities and supported cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, downregulation of CLDN14 dramatically re-enhanced the wnt/β-catenin signaling activity in EZH2-silenced HCC cells by increasing the levels of active β-catenin and promoting the nuclear localization of β-catenin. These results, collectively, uncover that CLDN14 is a novel direct target of EZH2-mediated H3K27ME3, and provide an explanation for the aggressive nature of HCC with downregulation of CLDN14 and the underling mechanism that links the tumor suppressor CLDN14 to the wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for the majority of liver cancer, with the incidence and mortality rates increasing every year. Despite the improvement of clinical management, substantial challenges remain due to its high recurrence rates and short survival period. This study aimed to identify potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in HCC through bioinformatic analysis.Methods: Datasets from GEO and TCGA databases were used for the bioinformatic analysis. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were carried out by WebGestalt website and clusterProfiler package of R. The STRING database and Cytoscape software were used to establish the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The GEPIA website was used to perform expression analyses of the genes. The miRDB, miRWalk, and TargetScan were employed to predict miRNAs and the expression levels of the predicted miRNAs were explored via OncomiR database. LncRNAs were predicted in the StarBase and LncBase while circRNA prediction was performed by the circBank. ROC curve analysis and Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis were performed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of the gene expression, respectively.Results: A total of 327 upregulated and 422 downregulated overlapping DEGs were identified between HCC tissues and noncancerous liver tissues. The PPI network was constructed with 89 nodes and 178 edges and eight hub genes were selected to predict upstream miRNAs and ceRNAs. A lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was successfully constructed based on the ceRNA hypothesis, including five lncRNAs (DLGAP1-AS1, GAS5, LINC00665, TYMSOS, and ZFAS1), six circRNAs (hsa_circ_0003209, hsa_circ_0008128, hsa_circ_0020396, hsa_circ_0030051, hsa_circ_0034049, and hsa_circ_0082333), eight miRNAs (hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-19b-3p, hsa-miR-23b-3p, hsa-miR-26a-5p, hsa-miR-651-5p, hsa-miR-10a-5p, hsa-miR-214-5p and hsa-miR-486-5p), and five mRNAs (CDC6, GINS1, MCM4, MCM6, and MCM7). The ceRNA network can promote HCC progression via cell cycle, DNA replication, and other pathways. Clinical diagnostic and survival analyses demonstrated that the ZFAS1/hsa-miR-150-5p/GINS1 ceRNA regulatory axis had a high diagnostic and prognostic value.Conclusion: These results revealed that cell cycle and DNA replication pathway could be potential pathways to participate in HCC development. The ceRNA network is expected to provide potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HCC management, especially the ZFAS1/hsa-miR-150-5p/GINS1 regulatory axis.

ObjectiveEarly diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain significant challenges in clinical management. This study aims to identify prognostic biomarkers in HCC and to explore their implications in immune microenvironment infiltration.MethodsIn this study, we constructed a single-cell transcriptomic atlas of HCC, focusing on the expression profiles of T cell-related genes. Analytical approaches included cell-cell communication analysis and pseudotime trajectory analysis. To further predict and validate T cell-associated prognostic genes, we integrated transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Patients were stratified into high- and low-risk groups based on a prognostic model derived from these biomarkers. Immune infiltration levels in the tumor microenvironment were then evaluated across risk groups.ResultsA total of eight primary tumor samples and seven normal tissue samples were included as raw data in this study. Following stringent quality control and filtering, 53,477 cells were retained for downstream analysis. From these, we isolated 12,333 T cells, which were subjected to further clustering and annotation. The T cell subpopulations identified included 6314 natural killer T cells (NK T cells), 5199 effector memory CD4+ T cells, and 820 central memory CD8+ T cells. By integrating transcriptomic data from TCGA-LIHC and GEO datasets, we identified six prognostic biomarkers: LYZ, SPP1, EGR1, MARCO, FCN3, and PTTG1. A prognostic model was developed based on these biomarkers, enabling risk stratification into high- and low-risk groups. The model demonstrated robust predictive performance in estimating patient survival rates and immune cell infiltration levels within the tumor microenvironment.ConclusionThis study identified and validated prognostic biomarkers in HCC that effectively predict patient survival rates and immune infiltration characteristics. These findings provide a potential foundation for precision medicine strategies in HCC, offering novel insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment and its clinical implications.

Epigenetic mechanisms, such as histone deacetylases (HDACs), play an important role in the commencement and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previously, we have identified proteins with binds with HDAC1 and HDAC3 in liver cancer cells and also have shown that depletion of either HDAC1 or HDAC3 suppressed the expression of HDAC1/3 interacting proteins, including the prefoldin protein 2/6 (PFDN2/6), CR4-NOT transcription complex subunit 1 (CNOT1), and high mobility group 20B (HMG20b). In this study, online databases were utilized to analyze the expression of HDAC1/3, PFDN2/6, CNOT1, and HMG20b in a large panel of liver cancer cell lines, cancer tissues, and human normal and tumor liver tissues. These databases are “RNA Expression Atlas (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa/home), Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), gene expression profiling interactive analysis (GEPIA), integrative molecular databases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCCDB), human protein atlas, and Kaplan-Meier Plotter for RNA sequences in liver cancer (http://kmplot.com/analysis/index.php?p=service&cancer=liver_rnaseq#). The expression of these genes was verified experimentally in human HepG2 cells via semi-quantitative RT PCR. The results showed that all these genes are expressed in twenty-three human liver cancer cell lines, higher expression in human liver cancer than normal tissues. However, HDAC1 and PFDN2 are expressed at higher levels than other genes analyzed in this study. The analysis of these six genes in 364 human liver cancer patients by Kaplan Meier plotter predicted HDAC1 and PFDN2 as poor, while HMG20b as a favorable prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma. PFDN2 and HMG20b are novel prognostic markers of hepatocellular carcinoma, identified first in this study. Further clinical studies are needed to verify the expression and patient survival concerning the expresion of PFDN2 and HMG20b in human hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Background: Metallothioneins (MTs) play crucial roles in the modulation of zinc/copper homeostasis, regulation of neoplastic growth and proliferation, and protection against apoptosis. The present study attempted to visualize the prognostic landscape of MT functional isoforms and identify potential prognostic biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The transcriptional expression, comprehensive prognostic performances, and gene–gene interaction network of MT isoforms in HCC were evaluated via Oncomine, GEPIA, Kaplan–Meier plotter, and GeneMANIA databases. Characterized by good prognostic value in three external cohorts, MT1H was specifically selected as a potential prognostic biomarker in HCC with various clinicopathological features. Functional and pathway enrichment analyses of MT1H status were performed using cBioPortal, the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), and ssGSVA method. Results: MT1E/1F/1G/1H/1M/1X/2A was greatly downregulated in HCC. Prognostic analyses elucidated the essential correlations between MT1A/1B/1H/1X/2A/4 attenuation and poor overall survival, between MT1B/1H/4 downregulation and worse relapse-free survival, and between MT1A/1B/1E/1H/1M/2A/4 downregulation and diminished progression-free survival in HCC. Taken together, these results indicated the powerful prognostic value of MT1H among MTs in HCC. In-depth analyses suggested that MT1H may be more applicable to alcohol-derived HCC and involved in the downregulation of the inflammatory pathway, Jak–STAT pathway, TNF pathway, and Wnt signaling pathway. Conclusion: MT-specific isoforms displayed aberrant expression and varying prognostic value in HCC. MT1H repression in HCC was multi-dimensionally detrimental to patient outcomes. Therefore, MT1H was possibly associated with carcinogenesis and exploited as a novel prognostic biomarker and candidate therapeutic target for HCC.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains the main type of liver cancer. Understanding the molecular and immune mechanisms of HCC tumorigenesis are required to develop effective biomarkers. This study is designed to measure the circulating MMP9 and CEBPα to provide a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for HCV-genotype (4) induced liver cirrhosis and carcinogenesis. This study included one hundred Egyptian patients, divided into two groups 50 patients each. The first group: classified into Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) without cirrhosis (n=25) and CLD with cirrhosis (n=25). The second group: classified into CLD patients with HCC, (n=25), and healthy control (25 volunteers). The expression of MMP9 and CEBPα genes were analysed using Real-Time PCR. Our results showed significant downregulation in MMP9 and CEBPα genes in cirrhotic and HCC patients (p< 0.001 and p<0.001) respectively. There was a significant (p< 0.001) diagnostic capacity between HCC patients against CLD with or without cirrhosis patients. Bioinformatics analysis revealed a relationship between MMP9 and CEBPα genes. In conclusion, the gradual decrease in the expression of MMP9 and CEBPα gene during the progression of the disease recommended use of MMP9 and CEBPα genes as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for both cirrhosis and HCC in HCV-genotype (4) patients.

Metabolic disorders are significant risk factors for liver cancer, particularly Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). However, the molecular genetic basis of metabolic reprogramming in the liver remains largely uncertain. This study aimed to investigate some novel prognostic biomarkers in HCC by using proteogenomic and transcriptomic analysis and explore the potential role of specific prognostic genes in HCC. Here, we have presented a proteogenomic analysis of 10 pairs of HCC. Protein co-expression and pathway analysis were performed to investigate the biological characteristics of HCC. Protein and mRNA expression profiles of multi-cohorts were integrated to detect novel prognostic protein markers of HCC. The carcinogenic roles of candidate prognostic markers were further evaluated by MTS assay, colony formation, monolayer wound healing assay, and xenograft models. A total of 2086 proteins with significantly different expressions were detected in HCC. Pathways related to oncogenic signaling and insulin-related metabolism have been found to be dysregulated and differentially regulated in HCC. We have identified the novel prognostic biomarkers, KIF5B, involved in liver metabolic reprogramming. The biomarkers were identified using multivariable COX regression analysis from two independent proteomic datasets (Fudan Cohort and our recruited cohort) and the TCGA mRNA database. Both the protein and mRNA up-regulation of KIF5B have been found to be associated with a poor clinical outcome in HCC. Insulin activated the protein expression of KIF5B in HCC. Knocking out KIF5B expression by sgRNA decreased the protein expression of FASN and SCD1 and the intracellular triglyceride concentration. Silencing KIF5B suppressed HCC cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro, as well as HCC growth in xenograft models. Our findings have suggested KIF5B protein to function as a novel prognostic biomarker in HCC. KIF5B expression has been found to activate the AKT/mTOR pathway and reprogram triglyceride metabolism, leading to HCC development. Targeting KIF5B may be an effective strategy in the clinical treatment of HCC.

The contact inhibition of proliferation and cell movement is crucially important in embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and wound healing for the well-controlled organogenesis. The disruption of contact inhibition results in sustained cell proliferation and uncontrolled cell movement, which is a hallmark of solid tumors. Loss of contact inhibition allows cancer cells to facilitate the invasion of neighboring tissues and metastasis to remote organs. The recently identified Hippo signaling pathway has been implicated in contact inhibition of proliferation as well as organ size control. Indeed, the conditional inactivation of hippo-pathway in liver leads to enlarged liver (massive hepatomegaly) and tumorigenesis (Cell, 2007). Clinically, HCC often shows the huge tumor more than size in 10cm, strongly speculating that inactivation of hippo-pathway plays an important role in HCC progression. However, clinical significance of hippo-pathway in HCC is largely unknown. Here, we investigated the clinical significance of inactivated hippo-pathway, which induce overexpressed oncogenes (YAP/TAZ), using resected 80 HCC samples, and suggested the tumoral-high TAZmRNA expression was a worse prognostic biomarker for HCC patients represented by high proliferative activity. The tumor size in High TAZmRNA expression group (n =24) was significantly larger than that in low expression group (n = 56) (P < 0.05). YAP/TAZ protein over-expression in HCC was associated with high proliferative activity by Ki-67 positive cells. The high TAZmRNA expression group showed significantly worsen disease free survival and overall survival compared with that in low expression group (P = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively). Thus, inactivation of Hippo-pathway plays a crucial role in tumor progression by accelerating proliferative activity, and tumoral TAZmRNA expression level may be a useful prognostic biomarker in HCC. Citation Format: Hiromitsu Hayashi, Hideyuki Kuroki, Naomi Yokoyama, Shigeki Nakagawa, Hidetoshi Nitta, Katsunori Imai, Daisuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Ikuta, Akira Chikamoto, Toru Beppu, Hideo Baba. Inactivated hippo-pathway as a prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1160. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1160

Background: About 90% of liver cancer-related deaths are caused by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). N7-methylguanosine (m7G) modification is associated with the biological process and regulation of various diseases. To the best of our knowledge, its role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of HCC has not been thoroughly investigated.Aim: To identify N7-methylguanosine (m7G) related prognostic biomarkers in HCC. Furthermore, we also studied the association of m7G–related prognostic gene signature with immune infiltration in HCC.Methods: The TCGA datasets were used as a training and GEO dataset “GSE76427” for validation of the results. Statistical analyses were performed using the R statistical software version 4.1.2.Results: Functional enrichment analysis identified some pathogenesis related to HCC. We identified 3 m7G-related genes (CDK1, ANO1, and PDGFRA) as prognostic biomarkers for HCC. A risk score was calculated from these 3 prognostic m7G-related genes which showed the high-risk group had a significantly poorer prognosis than the low-risk group in both training and validation datasets. The 3- and 5-years overall survival was predicted better with the risk score than the ideal model in the entire cohort in the predictive nomogram. Furthermore, immune checkpoint genes like CTLA4, HAVCR2, LAG3, and TIGT were expressed significantly higher in the high-risk group and the chemotherapy sensitivity analysis showed that the high-risk groups were responsive to sorafenib treatment.Conclusion: These 3 m7G genes related signature model can be used as prognostic biomarkers in HCC and a guide for immunotherapy and chemotherapy response. Future clinical study on this biomarker model is required to verify its clinical implications.

Background : Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most threatening malignancies because of the limited availability of radical therapeutic options. Thus, identification of prognostic biomarkers as well as molecular therapeutic targets of HCC should be very important for HCC patients. Fanconi anemia complementation group E (FANCE) is a DNA repair-related gene and it’s deletion is one of causes of Fanconi anemia. Recent studies reported that FANCD2 which is activated by FA complex involving FANCE shows high expression in HCC and expression of FANCD2 is in direct proportion to the grade of malignancy of HCC (Anticancer Res, 2017). And other studies reported that FANCE shows high expression in breast cancer (J Mol Biol, 2015). However clinical significance of FANCE expression in HCC is unknown. Objective : To clarify the clinical significance of FANCE expression in HCC. Material and method: Firstly, we assessed the relation between mRNA expression of FANCE and prognosis using large scale HCC gene data sets (The Cancer Genome Atlas; TCGA, Gene Expression Omnibus; GEO, and European Genome-phenome Archive; EGA). Secondly, the mRNA expression of FANCE was measured in 72 surgically resected HCC in our hospital during the period from 2000 to 2004 by RT-qPCR (normalized by internal control GAPDH), and we compared the expression of FANCE in between tumors and normal tissues. Thirdly, we assessed the associations between expression of FANCE and clinicopathological factors. Finally, we investigated the localization of FANCE by immunohistochemical staining data of THE HUMAN PROTEIN ATLAS. Result: In large scale HCC gene data sets and our samples, tumor tissues have higher mRNA expression of FANCE than normal tissues(t test. p<0.001). The high expression of FANCE was significantly associated with poor prognosis (Kaplan-Meier method, Log rank test. p<0.05). In the clinicopathological analysis, FANCE expression was not associated with any clinicopathological factors except age (p<0.05). THE HUMAN PROTEIN ATLAS showed that FANCE is expressed in the nuclei of HCC cells. Discussion: FANCE was overexpressed in HCC cells, and the high expression of FANCE was associated with poor prognosis. So high expression of FANCE could be a prognostic biomarker in HCC. Now we are performing knockdown experiment for FANCE to clarify the biological significance of FANCE expression in HCC.Conclusion: FANCE could be a prognostic biomarker in HCC. Citation Format: Junichi Takahashi, Takaaki Masuda, Yosuke Kuroda, Akihiro Kitagawa, Yushi Motomura, Kensuke Koike, Dai Shimizu, Shotaro Kuramitsu, Atsushi Fujii, Miwa Noda, Kuniaki Sato, Yusuke Tsuruda, Hajime Otsu, Hidetoshi Eguchi, Keishi Sugimachi, Masaki Mori, Koshi Mimori. Clinical significance of Fanconi anemia complementation group E(FANCE)DNA repair-related gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3173.