Background/aims: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NOX)-mediated reactive oxygen species contribute to various liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Uncertainties remain regarding the prognostic relevance of NOX1 and NOX4 protein expression in HCC.
Methods: NOX1 and NOX4 protein expression was examined by using immunohistochemistry in tumor tissue from 227 HCC patients who underwent hepatectomy.
Results: High immunoreactivity for NOX1 was observed in 197 (86.8%) of the 227 HCC cases and low immunoreactivity for NOX4 in 112 (49.3%). NOX1 and NOX4 proteins had opposite prognostic effects. High NOX1 expression was an independent predictor of both shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p<0.01) and shorter overall survival (OS) (p=0.01). Low NOX4 expression was an independent predictor of both shorter RFS (p<0.01) and shorter OS (p=0.01). Subgroup analysis showed that, among patients with normal α-fetoprotein levels, patients with tumor size ≤5.0 cm and patients in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A, high NOX1 expression had unfavorable effects on RFS, whereas low NOX4 expression had unfavorable effects on both RFS and OS.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrated that NOX1 and NOX4 protein expression had opposite prognostic effects for HCC patients. Moreover, both proteins had prognostic value in HCC patients with normal α-fetoprotein levels or with early-stage HCC.
Keywords: Carcinoma; NOX1; NOX4; Prognosis; hepatocellular.