Overexpression of signal sequence receptor γ predicts poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

SSR subunit γ (SSR3), an SSR family member, is heavily involved in cell growth and differentiation and closely associated with many tumor types. However, the role of this protein in HCC remains unknown. In this study, we used data from public databases to analyze SSR3 expression in HCC. We subjected 20 pairs of fresh-frozen tissues to quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction to investigate SSR3 expression. We also subjected 95 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded HCC tissues to immunohistochemistry to detect SSR3 expression and determine the clinical significance of SSR3 expression in HCC. Bioinformatics analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results showed that compared with that in adjacent normal liver tissues, SSR3 was highly expressed in HCC tissues. High SSR3 expression was positively correlated with tumor size (P < .01), cancer embolus (P = .01), TNM stages (P = .02), and differentiation grades (P < .01). Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses indicated that high SSR3 expression was significantly associated with poor survival in HCC patients and that SSR3 was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in HCC patients. In conclusion, SSR3 acts as an oncogene in HCC and can therefore serve as a biomarker for the prognoses of HCC patients.