Niu Fei-Yu, Jin Chuan, Ma Lei, Shi Yan-Xia, Li Xiao-Shan, Jiang Peng, Gao Sha, Lin Jin-Rong, Song Ye
Department of Medical Oncology, Affiliated Cancer Hospital and Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
J Gastrointest Oncol. 2021 Aug;12(4):1851-1859. doi: 10.21037/jgo-21-343.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and its prognosis remains dismal. Hence, it is important to identify the diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for HCC. Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), an extracellular matrix (ECM)-degrading protease, plays a pivotal role in the invasion and metastasis of HCC.
To confirm the clinical significance of uPA in HCC, we explored uPA expression in HCC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The expression level of uPA was further verified by quantitative reverse transcription polymerized chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in 133 pairs of primary HCC samples. A survival analysis was conducted with the Kaplan-Meier method in the HCC samples and TCGA database.
Our results showed that uPA was overexpressed in HCC and was significantly associated with HCC tumor size (P=0.015), differentiation grade (P=0.028), and absence of tumor encapsulation (P=0.010). Patients with high uPA expression levels had a poor outcome (P=0.026). TCGA database analysis was also consistent with our experimental results.
In conclusion, our findings revealed that uPA was overexpressed in HCC and was related to HCC malignant features including tumor size, differentiation grade and absence of tumor encapsulation. High uPA expression had a shorter survival time. It is a potential prognostic biomarker of HCC.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是全球最常见的恶性肿瘤之一，其预后仍然很差。因此，识别HCC的诊断和预后生物标志物很重要。尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活剂（uPA）是一种降解细胞外基质（ECM）的蛋白酶，在HCC的侵袭和转移中起关键作用。
为了证实uPA在HCC中的临床意义，我们在癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）数据库中探究了uPA在HCC中的表达。通过定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）在133对原发性HCC样本中进一步验证了uPA的表达水平。在HCC样本和TCGA数据库中采用Kaplan-Meier方法进行生存分析。
我们的结果表明，uPA在HCC中过表达，并且与HCC肿瘤大小（P = 0.015）、分化程度（P = 0.028）和无肿瘤包膜（P = 0.010）显著相关。uPA表达水平高的患者预后较差（P = 0.026）。TCGA数据库分析也与我们的实验结果一致。
总之，我们的研究结果显示，uPA在HCC中过表达，并且与包括肿瘤大小、分化程度和无肿瘤包膜在内的HCC恶性特征相关。uPA高表达患者的生存时间较短。它是HCC潜在的预后生物标志物。
