Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the expression of TARBP1 and its clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Materials and methods: 90 patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma were included in this study. The tumor and paired adjacent non-tumor tissues were collected. TARBP1 expression was assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. Associations of TARBP1 expression with the clinicopathological features were analyzed, and prognosis of HCC patients was evaluated.
Results: The result show the expression of TARBP1 mRNA in liver cancer tissues were higher than in the adjacent normal liver tissues in 10 paired samples (P=0.0015). Compared with adjacent normal liver tissues, overexpression of TARBP1 was detected in 61.1% (55/90) HCC patients. TARBP1 expression was associated with the AJCC tumor stage (P=0.004) and clinical stage (P=0.005), and decreased overall survival (P=0.002). In multivariate analysis, TARBP1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (Hazard ratio [HR]=2.773, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.542-4.985; P=0.019).
Conclusions: TARBP1 is up-regulated in HCC, and the expression of TARBP1 was associated with the pathological grading and clinical stage. TARBP1 maybe is an independent prognostic marker of HCC patients.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma-TARBP1- prognosis.