The high expression of TNF-α and NF-κB in tumor microenvironment predicts good prognosis of patients with BCLC-0-B hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

BackgroundIn hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), inflammatory factors play an important role, but their effects on the prognosis of patients with HCC are still not very clear.MethodsImmunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) in tumour tissues of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer-0-B stage (BCLC-0-B) patients with HCC. The relationship between TNF-α and NF-κB expression and clinicopathological features was analysed by χ2 test. Kaplan-Meier analysis and the log-rank test were used to compare the prognoses of TNF-α and NF-κB high and low-expression groups among HCC patients. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyse HCC prognosis by univariate and multivariate analysis.ResultsPatients with HCC had significantly longer survival times in the TNF-α/NF-κB high-coexpression group (P<0.05). High expression of TNF-α and NF-κB is an independent prognostic factor predicting postoperative survival and recurrence in patients with HCC (P<0.05).ConclusionsHigh expression of TNF-α and NF-κB in the HCC microenvironment can predict survival, and patients with high expression have longer survival times and slowing the recurrence time than those in the low-expression group.