Du Baoying, Liao Hongfeng, Zhang Sheng
Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Hubei Cancer Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.
Department of Pathology, Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China.
Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Apr 29;12:2937-2945. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S252873. eCollection 2020.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the most common malignancies. While there is lack of markers capable of predicting which patients are at risk of aggressive course of the disease. Although a few protein phosphatase methyl-esterase-1 (PME-1) tumor-promoting mechanisms have been reported, the role of PME-1 in cancer including HCC occurrence and progression remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to explore the expression pattern and relationship between PME-1 with the pathological parameters in patients with HCC.
PME-1 expression was assessed from HCC tissue chips via immunohistochemistry. Chi-square test was used to identify the association between PME-1 staining and clinicopathological variables of HCC patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to draw survival curves and verify the independent prognostic factors of HCC patients, respectively.
We found that PME-1 expression was significantly higher in HCC tumor tissues compared with non-tumor tissues (P < 0.001). Furthermore, high expression level of PME-1 was significantly associated with differentiation (P = 0.047), tumor number (P = 0.001), intrahepatic or extrahepatic metastasis (P = 0.018), and recurrence (P = 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that high expression level of PME-1 was associated with shorter survival (P < 0.001). Univariate analysis with Log-rank test revealed that PME-1 expression status was significantly correlated with overall survival (P < 0.001). Furthermore, multivariate models with Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that high expression of PME-1 was a statistically independent predictive factor of poor prognosis in HCC patients (hazard ratio, 3.429; 95% confidence interval, 1.369-8.589; P = 0.009).
In conclusion, these findings indicated that PME-1 expression was associated with aggressive pathological features and worse oncological outcomes, suggesting its potential therapeutic value for patients with HCC.
肝细胞癌（HCC）仍然是最常见的恶性肿瘤之一。目前缺乏能够预测哪些患者有疾病侵袭性病程风险的标志物。尽管已经报道了一些蛋白磷酸酶甲基酯酶-1（PME-1）的肿瘤促进机制，但PME-1在包括HCC发生和进展在内的癌症中的作用仍有待阐明。本研究的目的是探讨PME-1在HCC患者中的表达模式及其与病理参数的关系。
通过免疫组织化学法评估HCC组织芯片中PME-1的表达。采用卡方检验确定PME-1染色与HCC患者临床病理变量之间的关联。分别进行Kaplan-Meier分析和Cox回归分析以绘制生存曲线并验证HCC患者的独立预后因素。
我们发现，与非肿瘤组织相比，HCC肿瘤组织中PME-1的表达明显更高（P < 0.001）。此外，PME-1的高表达水平与分化程度（P = 0.047）、肿瘤数量（P = 0.001）、肝内或肝外转移（P = 0.018）以及复发（P = 0.001）显著相关。Kaplan-Meier分析显示，PME-1的高表达水平与较短的生存期相关（P < 0.001）。Log-rank检验的单因素分析显示，PME-1表达状态与总生存期显著相关（P < 0.001）。此外，Cox比例风险分析的多变量模型显示，PME-1的高表达是HCC患者预后不良的统计学独立预测因素（风险比，3.429；95%置信区间，1.369 - 8.589；P = 0.009）。
总之，这些发现表明PME-1表达与侵袭性病理特征和更差的肿瘤学结果相关，提示其对HCC患者具有潜在的治疗价值。
