Department of General Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Hokkaido, Japan.
Oncol Rep. 2010 Aug;24(2):537-46. doi: 10.3892/or_00000890.
CD133 antigen has been used to identify cancer stem cells in several solid tumor types, including hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). The aim of this study was to investigate whether the expression and subcellular localization of CD133 correlated with the clinicopathological factors, recurrence, and survival in HCC patients. Tissue specimens from 136 HCC patients who underwent curative primary hepatectomy between 2000 and 2005 were collected and immunohistochemically analyzed for CD133 expression. Positive immunohistochemical results and subcellular localization of CD133 were determined, and the correlation between CD133 expression and clinicopathological factors of HCC patients were evaluated. CD133-positive tumor cells were observed in 30 (22.1%) cases. Cytoplasmic and membranous expressions were observed in 22 (16.2%) and 20 (14.7%) of the CD133-positive cases, respectively. Positive cytoplasmic expression of CD133 was found to be associated with the overall survival of HCC patients, especially in stage III and IVA HCC patients (p=0.0092). Univariate analysis revealed that pre-operative serum albumin, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, tumor size, portal venous invasion, and cytoplasmic CD133 expression were important risk factors in HCC. Multivariate analysis revealed that among the factors related to tumor aggressiveness, cytoplasmic expression of CD133 showed the most significant association with overall survival, although the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.0681). Cytoplasmic expression of CD133 was a significant risk factor for the overall survival of HCC patients. Patients with stage III and IVA HCC showing positive cytoplasmic expression of CD133 are more likely to have a worse prognosis.
CD133 抗原已被用于鉴定多种实体肿瘤类型中的癌症干细胞，包括肝细胞癌（HCC）。本研究旨在探讨 CD133 的表达和亚细胞定位是否与 HCC 患者的临床病理因素、复发和生存相关。收集了 2000 年至 2005 年期间接受根治性肝切除术的 136 例 HCC 患者的组织标本，并进行了 CD133 表达的免疫组织化学分析。确定了 CD133 阳性免疫组化结果和亚细胞定位，并评估了 CD133 表达与 HCC 患者临床病理因素的相关性。在 30 例（22.1%）病例中观察到 CD133 阳性肿瘤细胞。在 22 例（16.2%）和 20 例（14.7%）CD133 阳性病例中分别观察到细胞质和膜表达。CD133 阳性的细胞质表达与 HCC 患者的总生存率相关，特别是在 III 期和 IVA 期 HCC 患者中（p=0.0092）。单因素分析显示，术前血清白蛋白、甲胎蛋白（AFP）水平、肿瘤大小、门静脉侵犯和细胞质 CD133 表达是 HCC 的重要危险因素。多因素分析显示，在与肿瘤侵袭性相关的因素中，细胞质表达 CD133 与总生存率的相关性最显著，尽管差异无统计学意义（p=0.0681）。细胞质表达 CD133 是 HCC 患者总生存率的显著危险因素。表现出 CD133 细胞质阳性的 III 期和 IVA 期 HCC 患者预后更差。
