Institute of Infectious Diseases, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
World J Surg. 2010 Oct;34(10):2411-7. doi: 10.1007/s00268-010-0648-4.
Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression changes variously in different human malignancies. The role of CTGF in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still not clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of serum CTGF in patients with HCC and its correlation with HCC angiogenesis.
CTGF, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were measured by ELISA in preoperative sera of 88 patients with HCC with tumor resection and 39 healthy subjects. The relationship between CTGF and HCC clinicopathological parameters was observed. Prognostic significance of CTGF for survival of patients with HCC was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis.
Preoperative serum CTGF level was significantly higher in patients with HCC than in healthy subjects (median, 63.5 vs. 11.4 ng/ml; P < 0.001). Serum CTGF correlated significantly with a series of clinicopathological parameters (big tumor size, advanced pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage, absence of tumor capsule, portal vein invasion). Serum CTGF showed a significant correlation with disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with HCC. Patients with high serum CTGF (>63.5 ng/ml) had a poorer disease-free survival time than the others (CTGF < or = 63.5 ng/ml; median disease-free survival time, 9.6 vs. 19.3 months). Patients with high serum CTGF had poorer overall survival time (median, 13.1 months) than the others (median, 21.7 months). In multivariate Cox analysis, CTGF was identified as an independent and significant prognostic factor of survival of HCC patients.
Serum CTGF plays an important role in the progression of HCC. Serum CTGF may be a potential indicator of angiogenesis of HCC.
结缔组织生长因子 (CTGF) 在不同的人类恶性肿瘤中表达变化多样。CTGF 在肝细胞癌 (HCC) 中的作用尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨血清 CTGF 在 HCC 患者中的作用及其与 HCC 血管生成的关系。
采用 ELISA 法检测 88 例 HCC 患者手术前和 39 例健康对照者血清中 CTGF、血管内皮生长因子 (VEGF) 和碱性成纤维细胞生长因子 (bFGF)。观察 CTGF 与 HCC 临床病理参数的关系。采用 Kaplan-Meier 分析评估 CTGF 对 HCC 患者生存的预后意义。
HCC 患者术前血清 CTGF 水平明显高于健康对照组（中位数，63.5 比 11.4 ng/ml；P < 0.001）。血清 CTGF 与一系列临床病理参数显著相关（大肿瘤大小、晚期病理肿瘤-淋巴结-转移分期、无肿瘤包膜、门静脉侵犯）。血清 CTGF 与 HCC 患者的无病生存率和总生存率显著相关。血清 CTGF 水平高（>63.5 ng/ml）的患者无病生存时间较其他患者差（CTGF ≤ 63.5 ng/ml；中位无病生存时间，9.6 比 19.3 个月）。血清 CTGF 水平高的患者总生存时间较差（中位，13.1 个月），其他患者的总生存时间较长（中位，21.7 个月）。多因素 Cox 分析显示，CTGF 是 HCC 患者生存的独立和显著预后因素。
血清 CTGF 在 HCC 的进展中起重要作用。血清 CTGF 可能是 HCC 血管生成的潜在指标。
