The clinical value of kinesin superfamily protein 2A in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to investigate the clinical value of kinesin superfamily protein 2A (KIF2A) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.

METHODS

This study retrospectively analyzed 196 HCC patients who underwent hepatic resection, and their preoperative clinical characteristics were collected from the medical records. Immunohistochemical (IHC) assay was performed to detect KIF2A expression, subsequently KIF2A expression was evaluated by a semi-quantitative IHC score (according to IHC staining density and intensity of positively stained cells) and then graded as KIF2A/KIF2A/KIF2A/KIF2A for analysis. Overall survival (OS) was calculated from the date of resection to the date of death.

RESULTS

Compared to adjacent tissue, both KIF2A IHC score and grade were higher in tumor tissue (Both P < 0.001). Tumor KIF2A expression was positively correlated with performance status score (P = 0.001), multifocal tumor nodule (P = 0.018), largest tumor size (P = 0.015) and Barcelona clinic liver cancer stage (P < 0.001). Regarding live function indexes, tumor KIF2A expression was positively associated with aspartate aminotransferase (P = 0.006). As to tumor markers, tumor KIF2A expression showed a trend to be positively correlated with alpha fetoprotein (P = 0.060) and carbohydrate antigen 199 (P = 0.053), but no statistical significance. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that tumor higher KIF2A expression was associated with worse OS (P < 0.001), which was further validated by multivariate Cox's regression analysis as higher an independent factor predicting shorter OS (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

KIF2A is upregulated in tumor tissue than adjacent tissue, importantly, tumor KIF2A is associated with worse liver function, raised tumor stage and poor OS in HCC patients.