Expression of NOTCH receptors and ligands and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

To elucidate potential prognostic significance of NOTCH receptor and ligand expression in hepatocellular carcinoma. NOTCH receptors and ligands were divided into increased and decreased expression groups by X-tile program. The association between NOTCH receptors/ligands and prognosis was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed to explore NOTCH receptors/ligands-related pathways via gsea-3.0. DLL3 and DLL4 were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Further studies showed that only DLL3 was significantly associated with tumor, node, metastasis stage. Gene set enrichment analysis analysis demonstrated that retinol metabolism, drug metabolism cytochrome P450 and tryptophan metabolism were significantly enriched in DLL3 expression phenotype. We demonstrate that DLL3 may be a prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma.