Use of cancer-testis antigen mRNA as specific markers to evaluate the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing liver transplantation / 中国普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of MAGE-1,SSX-1,and CTp11 mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) receiving orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) and the prognosis of these patients. [WT5”HZ]Methods The expression of the three genes in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was detected by nested RT-PCR,and a follow-up was carried out in 26 patients. Results Before OLT,the positive rate of MAGE-1,SSX-1 and CTp11 transcripts was 40.0% (14/35),37.1% (13 /34),and 31.4% (11/35),respectively in the PBMC samples of HCC patients;Sixty percent (21/35) of the PBMC samples were positive for at least one of the three gene transcripts. The follow-up of 26 patients showed that,the tumor recurrence/metastasis rate after OLT (75.0%) in 16 patients with positive preoperative PBMC samples of at least one gene transcripts was significantly higher than that of the other 10 patients who was negative preoperatively for gene transcripts (30.0%)( P = 0.043).Postoperative tumor recurrence or metastasis developed in 15 out of 20(75%) patients with persistently perioperative positive MAGE-1,SSX-1 and /or CTp11 transcripts in PBMC samples or swithing from negative to positive perioperatively,in contrast to no recurrence nor metastasis in the other 6 patients with the gene transcripts switching from positive to negative postoperatively,or negative perioperatively ( P =0.002). [WT5”HZ]Conclusions MAGE-1,SSX-1 and CTp11 transcripts may act as combined tumor-specific makers to detect tumor cells in the peripheral circulation of HCC patients,and the detection is valuable for selecting OLT candidates and predicting the postoperative prognosis.