Focal adhesion kinase mRNA overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma HCC) and correlation thereof with prognosis of HCC

Abstract

To investigate whether focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is involved in the progression of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and whether FAK mRNA expression has prognostic significance for HCC. Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to det4ec the mRNA and protein expression of FAK in 50 specimens of HCC obtained during operation. The correlation between FAK expression and clinicopathologic parameters was. The mRNA expression of FAK was significantly higher in the HCC specimens than in the corresponding non-cancerous liver tissues (P < 0.001), in the embolism than in the tumor tissue by the emboli of the same specimen (P < 0.05), and in the HCC with embolism than in the HCC without embolism (P = 0.003). Cox regression analysis showed that the FAK mRNA expression was correlated significantly with embolism (P = 0.003) and invasion (P = 0.020). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that FAK expression was an independent prognostic factor for survival. FAK plays an important role in HCC progression, especially in vascular invasion and FAK expression has prognostic significance for HCC.