Expression of abnormal spindle-likemicrocephaly-associated in hepatocellular carcinoma and its prognostic relationship after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the expression of abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM) in liver cancer tissues and clarify its prognostic relationship with clinicopathological features of liver cancer after liver transplantation.Methods:Immunohistochemistry was employed for detecting the expression of ASPM in 72 liver cancer tissues and 36 adjacent tissues of liver cancer liver transplant recipients fulfilling the Hangzhou criterion. In conjunctions with clinicopathological data, the correlation between the expression level of ASPM in liver cancer tissues and the clinicopathological characteristics and the post-transplantation prognosis for liver cancer were statistically analyzed.Results:During a median follow-up period of 29 months, 20 patients relapsed and 8 died after transplantation. Immunohistochemical results indicated that the high-expression rates of ASPM were 58.3% and 25.0% in liver cancer and adjacent tissues ( P=0.001). The difference was statistically significant. The high-expression rate of ASPM was significantly higher in liver cancer tissues than that in adjacent tissues. The expression level of ASPM was not correlated with gender, age, smoking/alcoholic history, hepatitis history, preoperative level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), tumor size, tumor load or vascular tumor thrombus ( P>0.05). And the postoperative high-expression rates of ASPM were 51.0% and 76.2% in pathological differentiation type Ⅰ-Ⅱ and Ⅲ-Ⅳ groups ( P=0.049). The difference was statistically significant. The wrose pathological differentiation type of liver cancer, the higher expression level of ASPM in liver cancer tissue. In liver cancer tissues, the overall 1/3/5-year survival rates of ASPM high/low-expression group were 97.6%, 80.6%, 80.6% and 93.3%, 89.7% and 89.7% respectively ( P>0.05). There was no statistical significance. And 1/3/5-year long-term disease-free survival rates were 78.6%, 55.5%, 55.5% and 86.3%, 86.3% and 86.3% respectively ( P=0.036). The difference was statistically significant. The disease-free survival rate was lower in ASPM high-expression group and post-transplantation prognosis was worse. Conclusions:The expression of ASPM is significantly higher in liver cancer tissues than that in adjacent tissues. And the expression level of ASPM in liver cancer tissues is correlated with pathological differentiation types of liver cancer and has an impact on tumor-free survival of patients after liver transplantation for liver cancer.