scholarly journals β-Catenin Expression and Its Association with Prognostic Factors in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Study on Alpha-fetoprotein, Histologic Grade, and Microvascular Invasion

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (A) ◽  
pp. 887-893
Author(s):  
Nur Rahadiani ◽  
Ignasia Andhini Retnowulan ◽  
Marini Stephanie ◽  
Diah Rini Handjari ◽  
Ening Krisnuhoni

Background. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary liver cancer. In addition to its high incidence, the disease burden is high due to its poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Some of the currently known clinicopathologic prognostic factors include alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, histologic grade, and microvascular invasion. At the molecular level, β-catenin is one of the most common driver mutation found in HCC. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway regulates cellular processes related to initiation, growth, survival, migration, differentiation, and apoptosis. Although the underlying pathogenesis of hepatocarcinogenesis is known, clinical application warrants a greater understanding of the molecular characteristics and tumor phenotype, especially for determining the prognosis. This study aims to analyze the expression of β-catenin and its association with AFP, histologic grade, and microvascular invasion. Materials and methods. Thirty-five samples of surgically resected HCCs at Cipto Mangunkusumo National Referral Hospital were examined. Diagnoses were made based on histopathological and immunohistochemical findings followed by β-catenin staining. β-catenin expression was analyzed to determine difference between variables. Results and conclusions. Here we show that β-catenin expression is significantly associated with low serum alpha-fetoprotein and well to moderate differentiation Implications. Strong nuclear β-catenin expression implies better prognosis in HCC.

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Kun Liu ◽  
Yi Chen ◽  
Mingyue Zhu ◽  
Mengsen Li

: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)is a major type of primary liver cancer. It is one of the major causes of cancer-related death in the world,because of its high recurrence rate and poor prognosis. Surgical resection is currently the major treatment measure for early-and middle-stage patients. Because most patients have already missed the opportunity for surgery when the disease is confirmed, conservative chemotherapy (drug treatment)is still an important method of comprehen-sive treatment for patients with middle-and late-stage liver cancer. However, the presence of multidrugs resistance(MDR)in patients with HCC severely reduces the treatment effect and becomes an important obstacle to the success of chemothera-py. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)is an important biomarker for the diagnosis of HCC. The expression levels of serum AFP in many patients with HCC increase, and the persistently increased AFP level is a risk factor for HCC progression. Many stud-ies have indicated that AFP functions as an immune suppressor, and AFP can promotes malignant transformation during HCC development and might be involved in the process of MDR in patients with liver cancer. This review describes the drug resistance mechanisms during drug treatment of HCC,and reviews the relationship between the mechanism of AFP in the development and progression of HCC andHCC drug resistance


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuyan Huo ◽  
Yuying Ma ◽  
Yu Yin ◽  
Guimin Qin

Aims: We aimed to find common and distinct molecular characteristics between LIHC and CHOL based on miRNA-TF-gene FFL. Background: Liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CHOL) are two main histological subtypes of primary liver cancer with a unified molecular landscape, and feed-forward loops (FFLs) have been shown to be relevant in these complex diseases. Objective: To date, there has been no comparative analysis of the pathogenesis of LIHC and CHOL based on regulatory relationships. Therefore, we investigated the common and distinct regulatory properties of LIHC and CHOL in terms of gene regulatory networks. Method: Based on identified FFLs and an analysis of pathway enrichment, we constructed pathway-specific co-expression networks and further predicted biomarkers for these cancers by network clustering. Resul: We identified 20 and 36 candidate genes for LIHC and CHOL, respectively. The literature from PubMed supports the reliability of our results. Conclusion: Our results indicated that the hsa01522-Endocrine resistance pathway was associated with both LIHC and CHOL. Additionally, six genes (SPARC, CTHRC1, COL4A1, EDIL3, LAMA4 and OLFML2B) were predicted to be highly associated with both cancers, of which SPARC was significantly highly ranked. Other: In addition, we inferred that the Collagen gene family, which appeared more frequently in our overall prediction results, might be closely related to cancer development.


Author(s):  
Aarshi Vipani ◽  
Marie Lauzon ◽  
Michael Luu ◽  
Lewis R. Roberts ◽  
Amit G. Singal ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Adela Turcanu ◽  
Ecaterina Pitel ◽  
Vlada-Tatiana Dumbrava ◽  
Eugen Tcaciuc ◽  
Ana Donscaia ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction. Moldova is the European country with the highest incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in both sexes. There is, however, no data comprehensively describing the presentation and the risk factors of HCC in the country. We decided to analyze cases of HCC recently received in a tertiary healthcare Institution from Chisinau, the Moldovian capital. Methods. A series of 148 primary liver tumors including 139 cases of HCC were retrospectively analyzed for demographic features, serological and biochemical data, and clinical presentation. Results. The mean age of patients was 59 ± 10 years (range: 19-66) with a M:F sex ratio of 1.9. Tumors appeared on full-blown liver cirrhosis in 83% of cases and were composed of multiple nodules at diagnosis in 36% of patients. Serum Alpha-fetoprotein was exceeding 10ng/mL in 76% of cases. Liver tumor and hepatitis were co-discovered in 34% of cases. More than 81% of hepatocellular carcinomas were associated with at least one hepatitis virus. Carriers of anti-hepatitis C virus were predominating (55% of cases) over patients seropositive for hepatitis B virus surface antigen (36%). Half of the latter were also infected with hepatitis Delta virus. In total, dual or triple infections were present in 24% and 7% of cases. Conclusions. The burden of infections with hepatitis viruses is particularly important in Moldova and corresponds to a situation commonly observed in countries of the Southern hemisphere. A pro-active policy of screening for persistent liver infection targeting population at risk of HCC (> 50 years) and coupled with the distribution of antivirals in positive cases should be rapidly implemented in Moldova to reduce incidence or primary liver cancer.


1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1257-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
P K Buamah ◽  
C Cornell ◽  
A W Skillen

Abstract We used affinity chromatography on concanavalin A Sepharose to study the serum alpha-fetoprotein of 10 patients with histologically proven germ-cell tumors and 12 patients with primary liver cancer. Less than 50% of the fetoprotein from germ-cell tumors bound to concanavalin A, as compared with more than 80% of the alpha-fetoprotein from primary liver cancers.


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