ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the expression of human leukocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR) in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical values in predicting prognosis.Methods The primary hepatocellular carcinoma tissues of 97 patients in our hospital from August 2012 to February 2014 were enrolled as subjects (case group),and the adjacent normal liver tissues were selected as control (control group,n =97).The expressions of HLA-DR in the two groups were detected by immunohistochemistry,and the relationships between HLA-DR expression and chnicopathological features,recurrence and prognosis were analyzed.Results The positive expression rate of HLA-DR in specimens of case group was 55.67％,which was higher than 21.65％ in comrol group,and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =23.671,P ＜ 0.001).The positive expression rates of HLA-DR in tumor tissues with diameter ≥4 cm,Ⅲ-Ⅳ stage,poorly differentiated,bile duct cell carcinoma,no lymph node metastasis were higher than those in tumor tissues with diameter ＜4 cm,Ⅰ-Ⅱ stage,medium and well differentiated,hepatocellular carcinoma,lymph node metastasis respectively,and the differences were statistically significant (x2=10.481,P =0.001;x2=18.854,P ＜ 0.001;x2 =9.876,P =0.002;x2 =6.834,P =0.009;x2=30.668,P ＜ 0.001).The recurrence rates of 2 years and 3 years were 27.91％ and 46.51％ in patients with negative expression of HLA-DR respectively,which were lower than 50.00％ and 70.37％ in patients with positive expression of HLA-DR respectively,and the differences were statistically significant (x2 =4.860,P =0.028;x2 =5.668,P =0.017).The median survival time of patients with HLA-DR positive expression was 33.64 months,which was shorter than 36.88 months in patients with negative expression,and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =10.356,P ＜ 0.001).TNM staging Ⅲ-Ⅳ (OR =0.899,95 ％ CI:0.721-0.995,P =0.012) and positive expression of HLA-DR (OR =1.125,95％ CI:1.025-2.568,P =0.018) were unfavorable to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients.Conclusion HLA-DR expresses abnormally in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma,which may be involved in the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma,and the up-regulation of HLA-DR in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma indicates a high recurrence rate and short survival time.