Expression And Significance Of GPC3in HCC Tissues And Adjacent Tissues

Background:Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a most common cancer with highdegree of malignance in modern society. Although the studies of HCC made someachievements because of the progress and development of science and medicaltechnology in recent decades of years, the incidence of HCC has been steadilyincreasing due to factors such as the environment pollution and the problem of foodsafety associated with by the growth of science and technology. There are no obvioussymptoms in the early stage and it become advanced quickly with poor prognosis.The five year-survival rate of HCC is very lower. Given these, early diagnosis andtreatment of HCC is of great clinical importance.In recent years, the studies of foreign researchers showed that GPC3gene wasselectively expressed in HCC and corresponding tumor adjacent tissues and is notexpressed in normal liver tissues. Such kind of specificity can probably be regardedas a novel sensitive tumor mark for liver cancer and gives a hint in early diagnosis ofliver cancer.Objective:In this study, the expression of GPC3was assessed by immunohistochemistry(SP method) in HCC tissue, corresponding tumor adjacent tissues and normal livertissues. By comparison of its expression, this research was aimed to revealing therelations among GPC3, clinical symptoms of HCC patients and pathologic parametersof HCC and tried to evaluate the clinical usefulness of GPC3in early diagnosingHCC, and predicting infiltration and metastastic potential of HCC, Hopefully it canprovide important information for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC.Methods:Experimental materials were abtained from HCC samples moved byhepatectomy performed consecutively from Feb.2010to Aug.2010in the FirstAffiliated hospital of Nanchang University. By immunohistochemistry (SP method), the expression of GPC3was assessed in34cases of HCC tissues and their corresponding adjacent tumor tissues,10samplesof normal liver tissue taken in non-HCC hepatectomy were used as control.in order tofind out the relations of GPC3and the clinical parameters (sex, age, liver cirrhosis,preoperative AFP levels, pathology grading, the size of the tumor, HBV infection,BCLC staging and vessel invasion) of patients with HCC.Results:1. The expression rate of GPC3in HCC tissue was67.6%(23/34), while it was20.6%(7/34) in corresponding tumor adjacent tissues which were2-3cm away fromthe HCC mass, On the contrary, GPC3was not expressed in normal liver tissues.2. Mainly located in cytoplasm, the expression of GPC3in HCC tissue was notrelated to the clinical parameters like sex, age, liver cirrhosis, vessel invasion,preoperative AFP levels, BCLC staging, and HBsAg expression. However, theexpression of GPC3was changed with the size tumors the difference was significantstatistically.3. The expression of GPC3in corresponding HCC adjacent tissues did notcorrelate with sex, age, liver cirrhosis, vessel invasion, preoperative AFP, pathologygrading, the size of tumor, BCLC staging system. But correlated with HBsAgexistance.Conclusion:The expression of GPC3in HCC tissue was higher in HCC of size less than5cmthan in size more than5cm.The expression of GPC3in HCC tissue was much higher than in correspondingtumor adjacent tissues, which indicated that GPC3gene might play a role in thedevelopment of HCC.The GPC3expression in HCC adjacent tissue may correlate with HBsAgexistance.